By Ben Banks

Copyright scotsman

Rangers head coach Russell Martin has confirmed a key player is returning to his squad for the clash vs Hibs. David Gray’s side travel from Easter Road to Ibrox on Saturday for a Premier Sports Cup quarter-final. Martin is under serious pressure after a shaky start to his reign at Rangers, with three wins from 12, their most recent result being a 2-0 home defeat to Hearts in the Premiership last weekend. One note of controversy has been Belgian international midfielder Nico Raskin’s omission from the squad. He was bombed out the ranks for games against Celtic and Hearts amid a need to win the trust back of Martin and his teammates, with the former Scotland defender now confirming Raskin is back in the fold ahead of Hibs. Martin said on the Belgian: “Yes, he is in the squad. He has trained really well this week. I think that situation is a necessary thing for this group to improve and understand what is really important. “I think it’ll be a really important period for Nico and his growth as a human being and a player I think it will be a good thing for me in the long term as well to really learn from it. He’s in a good place, he’s back in the squad and I’m looking forward to having him back in”. A protest is planned against the Ibrox boss and CEO Patrick Stewart ahead of kick-off. Martin said: “The protest and stuff, I can’t control at all. I have to respect it, I have to understand their frustration and their annoyance, but I feel every bit of it as well. It’s an amazing opportunity for us as a team to come through this period and grow through it and to be so strong from it. “Hopefully, at that point then everyone will come together. We just need to win football matches. It’s a really difficult balance because it hurts professionally, because we’re working so hard to try and give the supporters what they want – a team that wins and wins a lot and does it in a certain way. I’m more frustrated than anyone. “Listening to someone tell me the team doesn’t look like it’s coached is difficult. I don’t know any of them and they don’t know me and they don’t know how hard we’re working. It’s much harder for the people around me like my family and stuff to deal with than it is for us because it’s a professional thing you have to accept. People worry about you. “I think this club has been used by some individuals over the last however long, who’ve come here to progress their career, to have the status of being attached to a football club in the city. But in Patrick, in the ownership, in Kevin (Thelwell, sporting director), you’ve got people that actually really care about making this club sustainable and successful again. So we know it’s going to take some work to get back to that.”