Rangers star Andy Halliday has revealed he has had not more than a week of proper rest over the course of the summer due to the Gers reporting back for pre-season duty so soon, combined with his desire to keep ticking over.
Steven Gerrard's men finished their domestic campaign on 19th May, but have already reported back for pre-season duty and are at a training camp in Portugal.
The Ibrox giants have Europa League qualifiers coming up next month, while Scotland's League Cup also means an early start to domestic action.
Halliday admits the picture is completely different to that players south of the border in England have and as a result he has had little in the way of solid rest; the midfielder has chosen to make sure he has kept ticking over with his fitness work.
However, as a result Halliday admits he is feeling super fit and feels he has already seen the benefits at the start of pre-season.
"I think with me it was important I realised I had to come back as fit as possible and try and impress from the get-go and fight my way into the plans for this year", he told Rangers TV.
"I have done more work this summer than normally I would in the off-season.
"It is more difficult for us because when I played in England you have six or seven weeks off and would get those two or three weeks to rest and let the body recover before you started training again.
"When you play in Scotland you only really have that five days to a week and then it is all guns blazing.
"I haven’t had that much recovery over the summer, I kept myself ticking over and then in the lead up to coming back into training I have been putting myself through the paces.
"It seems to have paid off because in the first three or four days of running I have certainly seen a difference", Halliday added.
The midfielder had been tipped for the exit door in some quarters when Gerrard took over, but the Rangers boss is a fan of Halliday's never-say-die attitude and handed him 35 appearances across the course of last season.
