Maurice Edu has welcomed the prospect of some much-needed respite from Rangers' problems after enduring a difficult end to the season.
Rangers midfielder relieved to back in the USA
Maurice Edu has welcomed the prospect of some much-needed respite from Rangers' problems after enduring a difficult end to the season.
The midfielder is back in his native United States ahead of this weekend's friendly against Scotland, and is relishing the opportunity to focus on country instead of club for a while.
The Scottish giants were plunged into turmoil when they were forced to call in the administrators in February and a huge amount of uncertainty still hangs over the club's future.
While allegations intensify in Glasgow and Rangers fans continue to await news of a Company Voluntary Arrangement proposal, Edu is relishing the chance to train with his international team-mates in Florida.
A little escape
"It's good to get back among this group of guys and it's always an honour to represent your country," Edu said.
"The things that are going on at Rangers will hopefully sort themselves out pretty soon.
"It's kind of like a little escape from the situation right now.
"I can just turn my attention to this and try to focus on doing well at camp and doing well in these games."
He added: "It's your livelihood at stake and all the uncertainty is on your mind a little bit but I'm no different from the rest of the guys, I just try to focus on playing.
"That's what we love to do, that's what we get paid to do as well.
"Not only is it our passion but it's also our job so we take it as seriously as possible.
"You just try to conduct yourself as professionally as you can and go out there and work hard for your team and just play the game."
Future
On his own future, Edu - who was the subject of a failed bid from Sochaux in January - said: "To be honest, I haven't given it much thought.
"Things have happened pretty quickly from the last game there to coming into camp here.
"Now my mind has just been focused on trying to do well here.
"It's a competitive group of guys we have here and these are all important games that we want to play in.
"There are 27 guys in camp and they are going to cut it down to 23 or 24 so everyone is focused on doing well for themselves and trying to be among that final group of guys.
"Initially when everything started happening at Rangers, it drew some attention here.
"To be honest, I haven't been paying attention too much to the newspapers and things like that lately, I've just been trying to keep my head down and work hard here."
