MARTYN WAGHORN could be forgiven for feeling a bit out of step with life. As the Rangers team-mates around him continue to wind down now the Scottish Championship season is only one game from being at an end, the Englishman is bouncing about the club’s training ground, desperate to get going.

It is with the itchiest of feet – and a crocked knee – that the Rangers striker has watched the best of his team’s season come and go from the uncomfortable position of a seat in the stand. A title-clinching victory over Dumbarton. Gone. A Petrofac Training Cup triumph at Hampden? Sorry. Beating Old Firm rivals Celtic in a William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final? Afraid not.

To arguably make his 10 weeks even more frustrating, his gradual return to fitness has coincided with a clear slump in form from those playing in his absence in the way of the Celtic penalty shoot-out win. Two defeats and one draw is the best Rangers have offered as the foot is taken off the gas ahead of their three-week hibernation ahead of the Scottish Cup final on May 21st.

Tomorrow’s run out at the Paisley 2021 Stadium may be just that for a set of players who could well do with time to recharge and refocus ahead of next month’s meeting with Hibernian. Not for Waghorn, though.

“I’m desperate to play,” confessed the Rangers striker, who has been stuck on 28 goals since he was injured at Rugby Park back in February. “It’s been a frustrating time and I’m desperate to get back out there and finish the season the way I started it.

“It’s important that everyone gets back to the standards they set two or three weeks ago. The last few matches haven’t been good enough from everyone, so we have to show what we can do.

“The boys haven’t done too bad without me, though, so I’m looking forward to getting back out there.”

During his prolonged absence from action, it has at least offered Waghorn plenty of time to mentally prepare for that day at Hampden next month.

“At the minute I am just taking it one step at a time. I’m just visualising getting my kit on and walking out in front of the fans. Then I’ll take it from there. I’m just so excited for the build-up and what we could achieve.

“It’s going to be my biggest game to date, to be honest. Being at Hampden, many players never get the chance to do that. After Sunday we’ll continue our preparations for that game and I am so excited, I am like a little kid at the minute.”

The 26-year-old will almost certainly make his return to action for Rangers tomorrow as they go to St Mirren with the force of a healthy travelling support behind them. It is an afternoon that could have been so different for the forward if things had worked out differently at a previous club.

That previous club is Leicester who are just one win away from clinching an historic and landmark Premier League title. All in, Waghorn spent four years at the King Power Stadium before two loan deals saw him eventually sign for Wigan in January of 2014. It is a club he clearly still holds close to his heart. Having said that, there is no regrets from the man who is one game away from a domestic treble.

“Potentially,” said Waghorn at the suggestion he could have been a Premier League winner. “But I don’t think you can live your life like that. I could have gone anywhere else in the world, but then I wouldn’t be here.

“I’ve got to look at the positives. I went to Wigan and it didn’t work out there. Now I’m here and I am challenging for three trophies, so while it’s fantastic for Leicester, I am also achieving my own success here.”

“You could see in the last year I was there [at Leicester] that the foundations were being set at the club, driven by the likes of Jamie Vardy, Danny Drinkwater and Andy King. The way we pressed, the way we worked hard and closed down and the quality on the counter attack was there - it just needed the right man to provide the finishing touches and I think they’ve got that now.

“It’s like us. We’ve both got s small, close-knit squad built on hard work, desire and fighting for each other. That takes you a long way in the game.”