Glasgow Rangers legend Derek Johnstone left “heartened” by something said by Ibrox ace Jermain Defoe

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Glasgow Rangers have a very busy pre-season ahead of them with friendlies at Ibrox and Europa League qualifiers at home and away.

Glasgow Rangers legend Derek Johnstone has shared a response given by Ibrox loanee Jermain Defoe to a question about how he would cope with relatively little time off during the off-season, in conversation with the Evening Times.

The Scottish Premiership side have a very busy pre-season ahead of them, confirming last week that Ibrox will host three friendly matches in July against Oxford United, Olympique Marseille and Blackburn Rovers, on the Sundays of 7, 14 and 21 July respectively.

Steven Gerrard’s side are back in training next week and will be heading to Portugal for a nine-day training camp ahead of their pre-season fixture programme, which will also include Europa League qualifiers, as reported by the Daily Record.

Johnstone admits he was “heartened” to hear Defoe’s comments over only having a few weeks off over pre-season, and thinks it’s great that the striker is eager to get back playing as quickly as possible.

“I was heartened to hear Jermain Defoe speaking before the end of the season when he was asked about how he would cope with only having a couple of weeks off this summer before getting back into action,” he wrote in the Evening Times.

“He said that two weeks rest out in the sunshine and doing what he wants to do was great. But after that he wanted to get back to football again… not every player is like that. People might think they are tired after only having two or three weeks off, but most of the players have had a decent break.”

The first game of the Europa League second qualifying round will be held on Thursday 25 July, while the second leg of this round will be a week later, then the following two Thursdays will see the first and second legs of the third qualifying round.

The playoff round then begins on 22 August, the return leg will be a week later, and the draw for the Europa League group stage is a day later on Friday 30 August (The Scottish Sun).