KENNY MILLER has hit out at the ‘absolutely malicious’ treatment he received during his exile from the Rangers first team earlier this year.

The striker was banished by former boss Pedro Caixinha after a heated team meeting following the Old Firm defeat to Celtic at Ibrox.

But the Portuguese refused to clarify the situation with the 37-year-old during his final weeks at the helm before he was sacked last month.

Miller said: “Listen, I’ve not spoken about it publicly and I’m not going to go into any detail.

“All I’ll say is that it was really frustrating around that time because of everything surrounding the issue – which, by the way, was an absolute load of nonsense what was going on.

“Whether there were other agendas going on behind the scenes, that’s something I don’t know.

“But there is only one man who could have answered the question – and cleared things up – and that wasn’t me.

“Were there other agendas going on about why these things happened? I don’t know.

“But all I can say is that there were absolutely malicious things going about. It was nonsense and defamatory towards me and my character.

“Like I say, I came into work every day because there was nothing else I could do about it effectively.

“There was just a lot of stuff going on – a LOT of stuff – that was utter nonsense. But that was that.

“There was only one man who could have cleared it all up but I’m not going to go into specifics on that. But why it happened, I don’t know. It was never ever clarified.”

The defeat to Celtic was Miller’s last game under Caixinha as the League Cup loss to Motherwell and draw with Kilmarnock proved to be the final straws for the Light Blues board.

The forward was sent to play with the Under-20s at Brentford the week after the derby clash before returning to training at Auchenhowie.

Miller said: “No I enjoyed the day, actually. It was a decent game. I had worked with the young boys for a few years so it was good to get a game with them.

“Listen, it wasn’t ideal but it was a game of football. You can’t go down there and put the tools away or throw the dummy out the pram. Straight away that’s a negative against you.

“But I honestly enjoyed the game and the work out with the young boys.

“But there was nothing I could really do about it, that was the problem.

“You have to accept the decisions whether you agree with them or disagree with them.

“There is always a manager, there’s always someone in charge, and they’re going to live or die by their decisions. And ultimately that’s what happened.”

Miller marked his return to the first team with a brace in the win over Hearts and has featured in all four matches under interim boss Graeme Murty.

But he admits he feared the writing was on the wall for him as Caixinha attempted to stamp his authority at Ibrox.

He said: “Of course there was [a stage I thought I was finished at Rangers].

“You don’t know the way it’s going to go when you’re training hard as always but not playing every week.

“It’s tough when you’ve not got the game at the end of the week. But these things happen in football.

“It’s about keeping the standards you set yourself.

“I trained every day. If I’m not going to play then I’m not going to play but that’s up to the manager in charge.

“It’s hard, it really is hard, and that can affect people in different ways.

“You know, I might have acted differently to that situation ten years ago.

“But when you have a wee bit of experience you think more and the only way you’re ever going to get back in is by doing the work out on the training pitch. That’s the kind of mentality I think you’ve got to have.”