Ally McCoist hopeful Lafferty will be fit for Old Firm

Ally McCoist is crossing his fingers striker Kyle Lafferty will be able to play a part in Rangers’ clash with Celtic on Sunday.

The Northern Ireland international has not featured for the SPL champions since the 3-0 win over Motherwell on January 2nd after he suffered a torn hamstring.

It was thought that Lafferty would be out of action until the end of February before he suffered a setback which meant he was expected to be sidelined until early next month.

However, the striker is making good progress and Rangers’ boss has confirmed he could play some part at the weekend in the Old Firm clash.

“I’m hoping some of the players we’ve had out can get a bit of training under their belts this week and can be involved,” he told the club’s official website.

“It’s a big week for Kyle in terms of his training and his recuperation.

“He is going to train with the boys in the early part of the week and hopefully there’s no reaction.

“If he comes through it all okay, there’s a possibility he will be involved at the weekend.

“It has been a blow to our forward play to be without him and it would be nice to have him back.”

Steven Whittaker is back in training and was in contention to feature in their weekend defeat toDundee United, but McCoist was worried about rushing him back into action too soon.

“With Steven, there was a temptation to bring him back at Dundee United but it would have been a disaster for us and him if he’d been brought back too soon and suffered a recurrence,” he continued.

“There’s no point in rushing people back at this stage. We just have to make sure we get bodies on the park and that they are fit.”