By Joe Ellis

5th Jan, 2023 | 12:10pm

Rangers: Ianis Hagi return to form won't be immediate - Gheorghe Hagi

Gheorghe Hagi has been to Glasgow to visit his son Ianis as he continues his road to recovery at Rangers following a bad injury last year.

The Romanian international has not played since January 2022 when he was stretchered off against Stirling Albion in the Scottish Cup but is getting closer to a long-awaited return.

His work on the training pitch is well underway but his father, a hero of Romanian football, is determined to calm the excitement around his return saying that his best form and fitness is still some way away.

“I was recently in Scotland to see Ianis and he still has work to do to regain full fitness,” Gheorghe said, as quoted by the Glasgow Evening Times. “It is not easy to return to the form he had before his injury after a year’s break.

“But he’s ambitious and knows this. He’ll make it back soon and he will eventually return to his best.”

Relief

One can only begin to imagine how tough these past 12 months have been for Hagi having to watch his teammates go on an incredible run to the Europa League final and win the Scottish Cup while he was going under the knife and spending weeks on end with crutches.

His return to action, whenever that may be, will be cheered with great vigour by the Ibrox faithful who have been patiently waiting for him to come back and add that X-Factor to the Rangers midfield.

Michael Beale has been asking Glen Kamara to do that during his reign so far but when Hagi is back fit, he may well want to try and rotate the two of them and see who makes the bigger splash.

The sheer determination to carry on pushing regardless of his setbacks is surely the perfect mentality Beale would want within the dressing room at Auchenhowie and that could see Hagi become a key member very soon.

In other Rangers news, Mark Warburton has been waxing lyrical about one Light Blues player he admired during his time in Glasgow.