MICHAEL O’Halloran will rejoin the Rangers squad when they fly out to the United States this weekend – just four months after Pedro Caixinha declared he had no future at Ibrox.
O’Halloran will use the Florida Cup games against Atletico Mineiro a week tomorrow and Corinthians the following day to stake a claim for a regular start in Graeme Murty’s team.
The winger, a £500,000 signing from St. Johnstone during the 2016 January transfer window, fell out of favour under former manager Caixinha towards the end of last season.
The 26-year-old returned to McDiarmid Park on loan back in July and quickly rediscovered his form under his former manager Tommy Wright.
He was named the Ladbrokes Premiership Player of the Month for August after helping the Perth club win three league games against Ross County, Aberdeen and Motherwell.
His sparkling displays for St. Johnstone led Caixinha to tell reporters he was “not the type of player Rangers needs” and was “not my type of player”.
O’Halloran responded to those comments by expressing his disappointment that he had learned about his situation at his parent club from reading a newspaper.
He also revealed he had found the Portuguese coach difficult to understand and had needed to do extra training sessions by himself in order to keep fit.
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Wright had been keen to keep the player at St. Johnstone until the end of the 2017/18 campaign and was interested in taking him back to McDiarmid Park in a permanent deal.
He said: “If he’s just going back there to be a bit-part player, then it might be in everyone’s interests for him to come back here.
“If he goes we will have to replace him, but it’s a case right now of just waiting to see what happens.”
But Caixinha was sacked in October and Graeme Murty, who was confirmed as Rangers manager until the end of the season last month, is keen to see what the former Scotland Under-21 internationalist has to offer.
Murty this week recalled Andy Halliday from his loan deal at Azerbaijan club Gabala and the midfielder will also travel with the Glasgow club to Florida this weekend.
Elsewhere, Joe Dodoo, the former Leicester City forward, has also been recalled from his loan spell at English League One club Charlton Athletic.
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