RANGERS will continue to assess defender Bruno Alves ahead of the trip to Hamilton Accies on Friday night.
The 35-year-old missed the Old Firm defeat to Celtic at the weekend after travelling to Madrid for treatment on a calf injury.
Alves picked up the knock during the Betfred Cup win over Partick Thistle last week and spent time with Cristiano Ronaldo’s medical team in a bid to get back to full fitness.
Ross McCrorie stepped in at the heart of the Gers back four and performed well on his first start for the Light Blues.
But the return of Alves would be a major boost for Caixinha ahead of the trip to the SuperSeal Stadium this week.
The defender is now back in Glasgow and will work with Gers medical staff in the coming days as boss Pedro Caixinha prepares his side for a crucial Premiership clash.
Caixinha will also monitor left-back Declan John as he looks to return to action against Accies after also being injured at Firhill.
The Gers boss said: “Bruno travelled to Madrid and he was working intensively with Ronaldo’s physio. He worked on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and he went because I said to him to go and recover as quickly as possible.
“He (Bruno) is already back with us and he is going to be tested today and we will know today or maybe tomorrow if he is going to be an option to play on Friday.
“If he was here at the weekend he could have maybe been in the stands not helping because you can’t do anything from the stands.
“I am the one who makes the decisions for the team and I am the one who gives the confidence to the players that need to play.
“I think if it was about supporting Ross he received all the support from me whereas in the stands you can’t do anything.
“We will find out if he is going to be an option for Hamilton and this is about is making decisions for him to recover as quickly as possible.
“Declan John I think also needs a couple of days more so we need to assess him today and we will keep assessing him but I think there is a good possibility of to have him back on Friday.”
The showing of McCrorie was one of the few positives for Rangers at the weekend as he handled the Old Firm occasion well alongside Fabio Cardoso.
And Caixinha is frustrated he didn’t have a chance to blood the 19-year-old in first team action last term after he spent time on loan at Dumbarton.
He told RangersTV: “Let’s be honest, when we arrived here the youth plan was not allowing Ross to play.The chance that the other players got, to play around ten matches last season, happened because Ross was out on loan.
“It was not my plan, it was something which was planned previously and now that we know the player we changed that.
“I do think that if Ross had had the chance previously, then at this moment in time he would be an even better player or a totally different player because of the experience he should have had in that period of time.
“You always need four to five centre-halves and you have the proof now, because for the Old Firm match we had two of the five.”
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