Rangers defender John Souttar has been speaking ahead of the Premiership clash with St Mirren at Ibrox on Saturday.

Here is everything he had to say.

What have the last four months been like for you?

It’s been a tough start to my Rangers career. It wasn't how I envisioned it when I signed, it's just one of these things but I'm back now, I'm feeling good and I'm glad to be getting minutes on the park.

Did your previous injury experiences help you in your recovery?

Yeah, I think it does help you to an extent because you've been there before. You know what it's like to come back and the things you need to do but I think it was a more difficult one because you just signed for Rangers and you wanted to impress and prove to yourself and everyone else that you're good enough to be here. It was a frustrating period for me, but now I'm back I just need to do everything I can to stay in the team.

Was last week bittersweet in that it’s a game you want to be involved in but it didn’t end the way you would’ve wanted?

Yeah, of course. I only knew the day before I was playing with Connor's injury. It was my first start since the first game of the season. It was a difficult game to come back into, but just to play football again, I was buzzing to be back on the pitch.

What was the nature of your injury?

It was a stress fracture of my ankle.

Was it the same one where you had the Achilles problem?

Yeah, same one.

What went through your mind when you knew you would be out for so long?

I felt the pain before the Livy game and felt it during the game. We got it scanned after and it was the stress fracture in the ankle but it was what it was. I had to do everything to get back, keep myself in shape and come back the best possible way I could.

What do you do during those periods when you're out for so long to keep yourself motivated?

I think just focus. You need to be mentally strong. You have to have an end goal, focus on coming back, focus on being the best you can and focus on playing for Rangers, which is what I signed to do. I never actually felt like I'd done it before, so that was always the goal for me to come back and be as good a player as I possibly can for the club.

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How important is this period for you to establish yourself as a Rangers player?

Yeah, this is my first real opportunity I've had to be in the team. It's up to me now to go and take the opportunity and go and impress and show myself and everyone what I can do.

How do you feel physically and are you looking forward to kicking on in pre-season?

I feel really good to be fair. I've been training for over a month, maybe two months now. Usually with my other injuries, I was straight back into the Hearts team, but obviously, here it's a bit different. There's people in front of me that were doing well. It gave me that opportunity to build up properly and take a month or two months to come back. I’m feeling the benefits now because I feel really good physically.

How comfortable would you be playing on the left side of defence?

I think when you've just signed for Rangers and this was my last start last week wherever the manager asks me to play, I'll play. I just want to play for the club and I’ll do everything I can to stay in the team, whether that’s left, right or wherever.

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