RANGERS boss Ally McCoist is hoping his players return from the international break unscathed.

Because he has already started preparing for the SPFL Championship match with Raith Rovers a week tomorrow.

Lewis Macleod is away with the Scotland Under-21 game for their European qualifiers against Slovakia and Luxembourg.

Bilel Mohnsi is with Tunisia preparing for their African Cup of Nations qualifiers against Botswana and Egypt on September 6 and 10.

And Marius Zaliukas has a Euro 2016 qualifier against San Marino with Lithuania on Monday.

McCoist is putting his players through their paces at Murray Park and is hopeful that trio can return in peak condition.

He said: "I would probably prefer to keep it going actually, because apart from the one defeat to Hearts we've had some fine results.

"That said, it does give the majority of the players the chance to rest and regroup.

"We will train hard this week and they'll probably get a couple of days off at the weekend.

"We'll then be back in because we've got the Friday night game against Raith.

"That will be a really difficult test for us.

"I just hope the three lads on international duty come back with a clean bill of health and we'll be raring to go again."

Rangers' Petrofac Training Cup quarter-final tie away to East Fife - which was postponed due to the international call-ups - has been rearranged for Tuesday, October 21 at 7.45pm.