RANGERS manager Ally McCoist is open to the prospect of Dorin Goian making his Rangers return early with Italian side Spezia considering terminating his contract.

The defender left Ibrox in the summer to pen a season-long loan deal with the Serie B club but has endured a difficult time on the continent.

Spezia officials could send the Romanian back to Glasgow within weeks and Coisty hopes to clarify the situation with the 31-year-old.

He said: "I believe it is the case that Dorin can come back if he was released from the club in Italy.

"That said, I know he has had a tough time of it with bookings as well as a couple of red cards.

"That is an option we would certainly explore if it came to be. But there is nothing concrete there yet.

"I have spoken to him but not in the last two or three weeks.

"Either Andrew (Dickson, head of football administration) or myself will touch base with him to see how he is doing.

"It will be a courtesy call more than anything, I like to keep in touch with the boys.

"Carlos Bocanegra was back last week, he has a little bit of an injury so he was getting some treatment and was in seeing the lads."

The return of Goian would help bolster McCoist's thin squad for the Irn-Bru Third Division title run-in but the Ibrox boss is already looking longer term in a bid to strengthen.

An SFA registration embargo means the Light Blues cannot field new players until September 1.

However, McCoist is keen to speak to players who will be available on Bosman deals this summer despite the club not yet aware of what league they will be playing in next term.

He said: "It does give us an opportunity to get ahead of schedule in terms of signing players. That would be a big plus.

"The downside of it is that we don't know what league we are going into so we are faced with the same problem that we were this season.

"You are trying to entice players to a league that they probably wouldn't want to play in.

"We are hopeful at this moment it will be the Second Division after promotion, although there is still the possibility, I believe, of league reconstruction.

"I would imagine time is running out for it to be next year but it looks to be on the cards.

"We need to strengthen the side. I would be loathed to put numbers on it at this stage because we have to look at budgets.

"However, I don't think there is any doubt that we need to get players in to strengthen, probably defensively and up front more than anything."