GRAEME MURTY admits he doesn’t know how good Ross McCrorie could become in the future as he continues to go from strength to strength for Rangers.

The 19-year-old was handed his debut by Pedro Caixinha in September and has made 14 appearances for the Light Blues so far this term.

McCrorie has become an integral part of the Gers side under Murty’s guidance and the Under-20 boss has high hopes for one of his brightest young talents.

Read more: Rangers left furious with Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes after Ibrox deal U-turn

Murty said: “I have been extremely careful with him. When I came to the club, he had a big reputation, so I had to judge him for myself, judge the areas where he had to improve and Ross is a work in progress.

“At the moment, he is operating at a high level and you see the distance he has come in a short space of time.

“The rest of his potential, we are not really sure how far he can go yet. It is up to us to ensure we continue to nurture that talent and not think his talent has grown as far as it can just because he is playing in the first team.

“He has still got a lot of development to do and it is our job, collectively, to ensure he has that hunger to go and get better and not just be content to play for the Rangers first team, but to be the best player on the pitch for the Rangers first team and see where that takes him.”

Read more: Rangers 2-1 Ross County: Graeme Murty picks up where he left off at Ibrox

Caixinha tipped McCrorie to become a star for club and country after he replaced Bruno Alves during the League Cup win over Partick Thistle at Firhill.

And the youngster has taken the praise and the plaudits in his stride and quickly established himself at first team level with a string of impressive performances.

Murty said: “It opened the eyes of the Academy staff because the last thing we want to do is put pressure on the young man.

“But he has accepted it and accepted how highly we rate him, and I think he knows what the fans think about him as well. He embraces the challenge.

“To play for Rangers, you have to be of the mindset that people are going to be judging you all the time and you have to embrace that and step up to the challenge. He has done that, to all the challenge, really well.”

Read more: Chris Jack: Graeme Murty's results could speak for themselves as Rangers restart managerial search

McCrorie was utilised in a midfield role for the third successive game on Saturday as Rangers followed up their back-to-back wins over Aberdeen with a 2-1 victory against Ross County.

He had to be replaced by Jamie Barjonas after picking up a foot injury and will be assessed today to see if he is in contention for the clash with Hibernian.

Murty said: “He is wholehearted, he is very genuine and he was gutted to come over and admit he couldn’t continue.

“That takes a deal of maturity as well from a young man, to be able to come over and say ‘I need to come off because I am harming the team’.

“His words to me were ‘you are playing with a man down if you leave me on’. So fair play to him and I had to take him off. Then you throw another young man on and see how he does.”

The emergence of McCrorie has arguably been the biggest positive to emerge from an underwhelming campaign to date for Rangers.

And Murty hopes he will soon put pen-to-paper on a new deal to keep him at Ibrox for the long haul.

He said: “I think that is being discussed behind the scenes and you will have to talk to the decision makers with that.

“But he appears happy, he appears settled and I don’t think there are many things he would want to walk away from this football club for.

"I think it would be for the benefit of all for those discussions to be brought to a close.”