STUART McCall has revealed he expects Shane Ferguson to arrive at Rangers on loan next week.

And the interim manager has refused to rule out the possibility of the Northern Ireland internationalist aiding the Ibrox club's push for promotion.

Ferguson was one of five Newcastle United players farmed out to Rangers for the remainder of the 2014/15 season in hugely controversial circumstances back in February.

The 18-times capped 23-year-old has been recovering from a knee operation and hasn't been in Scotland.

But he is expected to travel to Glasgow in the coming days and interim manager McCall has admitted he could play for his side.

He said: "I've not spoken to anyone at Newcastle, but the doc has and the physios have.

"I think he has coming up for two weeks of training under his belt and is due up next week.

"As I have said before, that will have him been out for I think six months. He got the injury in October and the operation in November.

"If he has only done two weeks training you would imagine, unless he is one of these lads who is really fit and can come straight back into it, will need at least three or four under-20s games. But we will see when he comes up."

McCall added: "When I first got the job I was looking forward to working with him because I do know of him.

I saw him at Birmingham and I saw him at Newcastle. But when you have been out with a knee injury for five or six months it is difficult to get up to speed as quickly as we need.

"But, listen, if he comes in next week and is ready to train and impresses then obviously he is one who will come in for consideration."

McCall, whose side take on Queen of the South in a Championship match at Palmerston Park tonight, is certainly in need of reinforcements due to the number of Rangers players who are unavailable.

Kevin Mbabu and Stevie Smith have both suffered fresh injuries in training this week and have joined Jon Daly, Seb Faure, Richard Foster, Lee McCulloch, Streete and Tom Walsh on the sidelines. McCall said: "We actually have eight out unavailable," said McCall.