Rangers boss Mark Warburton admits he feels sympathy for out-of-favour Michael O'Halloran.
The former St Johnstone forward has struggled to make an impact since joining Gers for £500,000 last year.
And reports this week suggest Hearts are leading a pack of four Ladbrokes Premiership clubs looking to strike a short-term loan deal for the 26-year-old.
But Warburton insists he has yet to hear from the Jambos and confirmed O'Halloran is part of the Light Blues squad preparing for Saturday's William Hill Scottish Cup clash with Motherwell at Ibrox.
However, he did concede the former Bolton man, who has made just five league starts this term, needs the chance to play after becoming frustrated by his lack of action.
He said: "I've read some bizarre stories that Michael is off to Hearts.
"I'm sure Ian Cathro would have called me (if he was interested). He, I'm sure, knew nothing about it and neither do I.
"It is just one of many stories where players are linked with (moves), where players are going out.
"Until the window closes, you are never sure.
"From our point of view, Michael is one of our players and will be involved on Saturday.
"Michael is one of many players who wants to play. He needs games. It's the life of a manager that players will be banging on the door if they don't get enough pitch time.
"I can understand their frustration. Players want to play. My job is to be honest with them, to keep communicating with them and work with them every day on the training pitch.
"Hopefully they get their chance and are in a position to take it."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel