Steven Gerrard says he would take his Rangers team off the pitch if he feared they were at risk

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard says he would be prepared to take his team off the pitch if he feared they were at risk from violent fan behaviour.

There were a number of fan incidents over the weekend, including a Hibernian pitch invader confronting Rangers captain James Tavernier on Friday night, and the attack on Jack Grealish in Aston Villa's derby game with Birmingham on Sunday.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday's Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen, Gerrard expressed his concern over the direction of these incidents and what it might lead to.

Gerrard: Naive to look ahead

Rangers would be naive to look ahead to a Scottish Cup semi-final tie with Celtic before taking on Aberdeen on Tuesday, says Steven Gerrard.

He said: "My concern is obviously the safety of my own players and I'm confident that going into the game tomorrow night the security will be on their toes to make sure that there's not a similar incident

"But there's been a case over the last two or three weeks where I've been coming into these press conferences and not really talking about football which is a bigger concern.

"We are talking about fan behaviour, stuff getting thrown on the pitch, people entering the pitch and striking players which is a huge concern and for the image of the game, it's not right at all."

"Fans have to take responsibility and think before they do these types of things because if it continues, someone's going to get hurt and hurt badly, and no one wants it to get to that stage."

Gerrard said the authorities must be strong on the offenders and not punish the clubs, saying people committing the crimes should be "jailed", but he also said he would be prepared to remove his players from a dangerous situation if he felt the need to.

"Yes, of course [I would take my team off the pitch] if there was a situation that I thought it was necessary to do that.

"What we'd do is we would speak to the police and the officials on the day and we would make a collective decision.

"But it's certainly a decision I would support if any of the players - my players or opposition players - were at risk, of course.

Play Super 6

Predict 6 correct scores for your chance to win £250K.