Michael Beale offers revealing Rangers status he gave Lawrence and Roofe as makes admission over duo

Michael Beale admitted having Tom Lawrence available for his first competitive Rangers appearance in almost a year is a major boost along with Kemar Roofe who returns to the squad for the trip to Ross County - and admitted he sees both of them as starts in his side.

Lawrence was injured against the Staggies in a home game last season in what seemed like an innocuous knock but turned into 12 months of injury hell. Roofe was also ruled out for last season’s run-in and has had set-backs this season, restricting him to two late substitute appearances.

But both will travel to the Highlands and while Lawrence isn’t yet read for a full 90 minutes it’s a big boost having him available after he scored for the B team in midweek. Ahead of a huge week, Beale - who still doesn’t have Ridvan Yilmaz available - said: “Tom Lawrence and Kemar Roofe will both travel with the squad. That is a big boost and both hopefully feature tomorrow. Not having Lawrence and Roofe has been a big frustration for me. Both of them in my squad is a real boost for me, players I thought of as starters.

“Kemar has shown in training his quality and we can use him across the season. Tom is not ready for 90 minutes just now, but by the time we return from the international break he likely will be and what a boost that will be for everyone. Every three days we are playing, so it is important we have a squad that can manage the schedule. The squad will be so important, we have to look and see who is ready to play and who is correct for the challenge next up.

“In the attacking positions we have multiple strong options and have had multiple goalscorers already. As we go into the international break we get stronger as a squad and can build in the coming weeks. We