Aaron Ramsey would represent Rangers in a car park right now so Annan cotton wool won't wash - Barry Ferguson

It's time for Rangers to let Aaron Ramsey rip off the cotton wool.

On the face of it, the prospect of facing Annan Athletic away on a plastic pitch in the middle of February, is hardly what lured the Welshman from Juventus on deadline day. And, yes, a lot of people would expect him to be given the weekend off rather than take the risk of sending him out on a synthetic surface in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup.

But I’m prepared to make a bet here. If you asked him, Ramsey would play on a cow field or in a car park right now just to get some minutes in his legs and a first start under his belt.

I must admit, I expected to see more of him than we have done over the last 10 days or so. I was surprised that he didn’t go straight onto the bench for the Old Firm game at Parkhead and I thought he’d get more than just 15 minutes as a sub against Hearts and Hibs.

But I’d hazard a guess a decision has been made to effectively put him through a mini pre-season at Auchenhowie because he’s hardly had any football this season in Italy.

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I suspect they’ve been making him do a lot of extra work in training to bring his fitness levels up and now that he’s been working hard for the best part of a