Hemdani on road to recovery

Rangers ace Brahim Hemdani is set to step up his bid for fitness.

The summer signing from Marseille has still to play for Rangers because of injury.

The 27-year-old has been struggling with groin, thigh and calf problems since arriving at Ibrox.

Gers boss Alex McLeish is keen to have Hemdani available and the midfielder is set for a run-out against Kilmarnock's reserves next week as he looks to make a return to first team action.

"Brahim is at a good level of training and we hope to use him in part of the match at Kilmarnock," said McLeish.

"Hopefully, that will be him on the road to recovery and we will see him in a Light Blue jersey in the very near future.

"The medical staff think the limited number of games meant the conditioning side of his fitness was not as it should have been, so it was easier for him to pick up niggles.

"He had the groin injury which developed into a thigh strain and then he suffered a calf pull.

"However, he has been working hard at Murray Park running around the pitches with physios and we feel he is at a good level of fitness now."

Meanwhile, Rangers chief executive Martin Bain has revealed the club are looking to increase the capacity at Ibrox by just under 4000 to generate more income for the team.

The Gers announced an upturn in financial fortunes in August following the rights issue which raised more than £51 million to help claw back a previous debt of £73.9million from 2004 and Bain believes they need to increase the capacity at Ibrox to bring in even more funds.

"We don't want to go back to the supporter and ask for more cash to assist the team," Bain told the club's official website.

"We had season tickets at an inflationary increase this year and the Champions League increase was minimal in keeping with other clubs.

"There is a general recognition there - there weren't too many people out there who said anything about pricing and ticket structure.

"But what we have had to look at other ways to get the revenue.

"We are ahead of the game on the casino and we will see where that goes.

"But we cannot just rely on it happening, although we are confident, we have to look for a back-stop.

"We know we have the demand for the bigger games - we could fill Ibrox 10 times over for Celtic and the Champions League.

"So, if we look increasing capacity there and the fact the family section is now going through the roof, it makes sense to look at the increase in occupancy at the stadium to do some of the things the supporters want such as a family club.

"All in all, we could get just under 4000 seats if we were to do more projects, which is substantial."