Steven Gerrard: Rangers manager urges players to rise to Old Firm occasion

Steven Gerrard wants his battle-weary Rangers players to feed off the crowd's energy when "51,000 fans take the roof off" in Saturday's Old Firm derby.

The Ibrox side have played eight games in December and are three points behind Scottish Premiership leaders Celtic, who also have a game in hand.

Connor Goldson is one of several doubts after being injured in the Boxing Day 1-1 draw with Hibernian.

"There's a lot of ice going on bumps and bruises," Gerrard said.

"But I've said to the players we have two options: we feel sorry for ourselves, or we regroup. We have 90 minutes to flip how everyone's feeling right now.

"The players all need to come to see me individually in the next couple of days to tell me if they're in or out."

As well as Goldson, who picked a knee injury, winger Ryan Kent, midfielders Scott Arfield and Ryan Jack, and defender Gareth McAuley are also fitness doubts for Saturday's Ibrox encounter.

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Celtic moved three points clear after defeating Aberdeen 4-3 at Pittodrie and they will remain top going into the winter break unless Rangers win by four goals or more.

Brendan Rodgers' side have also played eight games in December, albeit they have had marginally longer on average between those matches.

"For the Celtic game, we'll do everything we can to make the starting XI as strong as possible," added Gerrard.

"We have to try to use [the home crowd] to our advantage. We owe it to them to find 90 minutes, then we can go and rest."