Russell Martin confident Rangers will be fit and ready for Champions League

Rangers head coach Russell Martin feels his squad have enough work behind them to steel them for their Champions League opener despite some fitness issues restricting his choices.

Martin and his players will take on Panathinaikos on Tuesday in his competitive debut in the second qualifying round.

“The adrenaline, the crowd, everything else will help them through,” Martin told Rangers TV.

“I feel like we’ve got a good enough base to build off and to win a game of football and to prepare us for that.

“I’m excited about what we’re going to see on the pitch. It’s by no means going to be complete. We need time to really embed what we want and for the team to really look how we want it.

“But we need to put in a performance that looks like us and gives us a platform to build off and to win a game. And to excite the crowd and to make them feel like this is going to be a team that they can connect with.”

Rangers are likely to start without strikers Cyriel Dessers and Hamza Igamane, who scored 45 goals between them last season.

“They’re both a little bit behind the group in terms of fitness,” Martin said. “Cyriel because of an injury and Hamza because of visa problems.

“But they’re here now and they’re working so hard to get back into shape. And they’re both going to be ready to help us, which is going to be really important.

“I’m looking forward to having them fully fit and firing very soon.”

Former Wigan and Luton midfielder Thelo Aasgaard is also a fitness doubt for the first leg.

“It’s disappointing for him and for us,” Martin said. “Everything we thought we were getting and more since he’s been here has been incredible. His understanding, his athleticism, the power he has, the technical capability, he really is an exciting player for us.

“Unfortunately, it’s a different level of intensity and it’s obviously high demands from pre-season. He’s picked up just a little something, so he’s going to be touch and go.

“We hope he can be involved, but if not, then we’re really hopeful he’ll be ready and raring to go for the second one.”

Winger Djeidi Gassama is also short of full fitness after arriving from Sheffield Wednesday last week.

Martin said: “He’s a little bit behind in terms of fitness because they went back a bit later than us and the pre-season he’s had has been a bit disrupted because he was going to be on the move.

“He’s not ready to start the game. But he is totally different to anything we’ve got. He’s unpredictable. He’s a fantastic one-on-one specialist. He has real individual talent.

“He has a lot of work to do physically and to get used to the way we’re going to work. But already his willingness to do that, how hard he’s working to catch up on fitness, has been really brilliant.

“So he’ll be in the squad. He’ll definitely be ready to go for the second game. The first game might have to manage his minutes and the expectation, but he’s going to help us a lot.”