Walter Smith has had one major worry hanging over him throughout Rangers pre-season campaign – and he’s powerless to remove it from his mind.

The difficulties of operating with a weakened squad – he has just 14 experienced players with him Down Under along with a batch of rookies – were laid bare once again as the manager watched his side slip and slide their way to a 0-0 draw in rain-lashed Sydney.

Lee McCulloch and Kyle Lafferty both limped off near the end of Gers’ second tour game, but Smith breathed a sigh of relief afterwards that they did not pick up

serious problems.

Kenny Miller continues to battle through the pain of shin splints and lasted an hour. But Smith’s angst is that, so few are his bodies, that they will all more or less have to go again when the champions conclude against AEK Athens in the early hours of Saturday.

The Gers boss said today: “We don’t have a huge squad in terms of numbers and experience.

“The players underneath our first-team pool are all younger ones.

“I was hoping to use this week to get higher overall fitness in the experienced group. We have to stick more or less with the ones we have.

“Obviously I’ll keep an eye on things with regards to the weekend, but we don’t have the luxury of big numbers and the season starts in almost two weeks’ time.

“But I will take a very good look at them and it may be that I will have to make substitutions a lot earlier than I have been doing here.

“Kyle had a little bit of cramp in his calf as you’d expect because he did a lot of running. He’ll be okay and the same should apply to Lee as he just took a kick.”

Miller is clearly going to be treated with kid gloves due to his status as the club’s main striker at this moment in time.

Hamstring problems have plagued him over the past 18 months – now it’s shin splints – and Smith is keeping a close eye on his involvement.

“Kenny came off with the same problem that has been bothering him and we just have to watch it doesn’t become a chronic one,” said Smith.

“It’s okay during the game but as soon as he stops it causes him a bit of pain.

“Hopefully we can get over the weekend’s game because, when we travel back, he will then have a few days’ recovery and he won’t have to play against Clyde next midweek.”

Constant rain turned the Sydney Football Stadium first into something that resembled an ice-skating rink before the pitch turned in to a quagmire.

“The water was starting to lie on top of the pitch and it was awkward for both sides,” said Smith.

“That was reflected in the fact there weren’t many opportunities for either side in the game.

“We showed a good level of fitness for this time of the year and that was a pleasing factor, even if it was the only positive for us.”

Gers line-up v Sydney: Alexander; Whittaker, Weir, Webster, Broadfoot; Naismith, McCulloch (McMillan 84), Edu, Davis, Lafferty (Little 80); Miller (Fleck 60).