When the going gets tough, Rangers youngster Leon King looks down at his right arm for a reminder of what's required.

Etched there are two words. Mind and matter. With the latter on top of the former.

It's a message the 18-year-old uses as a grounding tool as he deals with the punishing psychological challenges thrown up by a life in elite sport.

King said: “It’s the first tattoo I ever got, so I think back to that when times get tough. I just think, being a young boy, it’s all mental when you come into a first-team dressing room with a lot of experienced, senior players.

“It’s about trying to keep on the straight and narrow. Don’t get too far ahead of yourself and don’t get too down. At a club like this it can be nerve-racking sometimes going out there and playing in front of 50,000 fans.

“It’s not normal for someone of my age to be going and doing that. It can get to you a wee bit. But with the coaching staff, the support bubble around you and the other players, they make it a hell of a lot easier.”

King has made an impact in youth teams as a silky, ball-playing defender who has the capacity to bring out the ball. He's also played as full-back - but defending wasn't always his forte. As a kid coming through the age groups, he was more of a poacher.

He smiled: “Funnily enough, I wasn’t always a defender. When I was growing up it was all the goalscorers. Kris Boyd and all the foreign players you saw in the Champions League and so on.

“When we turned to 11-a-sides, I was the biggest in the age group. So they just said, ‘Back there, son!’. It was probably for the best, to be honest. I wasn’t too fussed. I was at Rangers and as long as I was playing for the team I supported, I was buzzing and my family was buzzing.”