GARY MCALLISTER is confident defender George Edmundson has the ability and mentality to make the step up from Oldham to Rangers this season.

The 21-year-old will join up with the Light Blues squad at their pre-season training camp in Portugal as boss Steven Gerrard puts his players through their paces in the coming days.

Having lost Joe Worrall and Gareth McAuley from the Ibrox ranks this summer, the arrival of Edmundson gives Gerrard much-needed cover at the back.

Connor Goldson has returned to action after an impressive first season with the Gers, but Nikola Katic is still on international duty with Croatia at the Under-21 European Championships.

Rangers play their first competitive game of the new term with a Europa League first round clash against Prishtina or St Joseph’s next month.

And that could see Edmundson pitched in early on in his Ibrox career as Rangers look to hit the ground running this term.

The stopper attracted interest from several English clubs before setting his heart on a move to Glasgow to work with Gerrard.

And assistant manager McAllister has backed Edmundson to prove his worth in Light Blue.

He said: “It is an area where we need to feel we need to get some numbers in and he is a young player that we have watched for a wee while now.

“He has got a bit of composure, he likes to defend his goal. He would bring us another number in that centre-back area but he has got experience and he has played games. We are in four competitions so we will have a lot of games and we need numbers.

“It is like every area of the team, the people that we have added come in and it brings competition.

“The facts are that we are early in the season just now, we are three weeks away from a Europa League campaign and people have got to come in and hit the ground running.

“Players have played a lot of games last season and proved their worth, but we all start again and we need competition for every position. Whether you have played 50 games, 60 games last season, there are no guarantees who is in the starting XI.

“We need to be competitive right throughout the team from defence, midfield and up the pitch.

“We think he has got the composure and the temperament to come here and we will look at him when he arrives and we will gauge when he is ready.

“He might be ready immediately, he might come in and grab it right away. We are obviously aware of the level of club he is coming from to the level here and it is quite a big jump but we think he is capable.”