Wednesday 10 May 2017 21:09, UK
Rangers captain Lee Wallace accepts injury has probably ended his campaign but says he has no problem with Pedro Caixinha's plans for a shorter summer break.
Wallace is not expected to feature in the last three games in the Scottish Premiership after undergoing surgery following his half-time exit against Motherwell on April 1 and the 29-year-old will now also be a major doubt for Scotland's World Cup Qualifier against England on June 10.
However, he is now looking to use time on the sidelines to regain fitness before joining in training again.
Wallace told Rangers TV: "The stomach and the tear itself, the repair went fine. I saw the surgeon two weeks later and he was happy with how it looked and was given the go-ahead to step it up with Steve (Walker) and the physios at that point.
"Leading up to the games there has maybe been a bit of pain coming from my hip and my groin, and obviously they are all connected. We just need to get those things right and it's not quite settled in the way I would have liked it.
"There's time now and we are going to use these remaining weeks to build that flexibility and get myself back to a level where I can join in training again. I think at this moment in time, it will probably be the summer when we return for pre-season."
Rangers begin pre-season training on June 5 but Wallace has been given two days off on June 11 and 12 to get married. The two-week summer break has been the subject of much comment but Wallace insists there is no problem with Caixinha's demands.
"There have been a lot of bizarre headlines coming from outside of here about players mumping and moaning about breaks and weddings, and it's just nonsense," he said. "If we are told we are getting a day off or two weeks off by the manager of the club to prepare for a new season, then we will fall in line with that with no mumping or moaning.
"Two weeks' break is fine to recharge the batteries and recharge ourselves mentally, have a wee break from it all and look forward to getting back in."
Meanwhile, Wallace's replacement at left-back, Myles Beerman, feels he is on a steep learning curve after his baptism of fire in the first team. The 18-year-old gave away a cheap penalty in the 5-1 defeat to Celtic but feels he will not make a similar mistake again.
"I have learnt an incredible amount in such a short space of time, I've learnt more in a month than possibly I have learnt throughout my whole career," he said. "Winning, losing, everything I have learnt from, first-team football is completely different.
"Every footballing career will be full of negatives and positives but you just have to try and keep a consistent feeling and attitude towards everything - that is what being professional is all about.
"I have definitely learnt from giving the penalty away against Celtic, it was a silly tackle and a bad mistake on my part. For future reference I know what I will be doing differently and it's just learning I guess. I was disappointed in myself big time because I shouldn't have done that but straight away I tried to pick myself up as much as I could. All in all, it was a tough game and it was quite hard to handle.
"You have to start from somewhere, every footballer has to start his career in first-team football at some stage and playing in front of 50,000 was hard but it is something I have to get used to and I need to keep on going. Usually you build up to that in your career but I have just been thrown in and to be honest I have loved every second of it."
