Steven Gerrard insists he has ego-free players ready to answer any call for Rangers after five players breached Covid-19 rules and depleted his squad.

The Gers boss earlier on Wednesday confirmed that Bongani Zungu, Nathan Patterson and Calvin Bassey, young goalkeeper Brian Kinnear, and his fellow academy player Dapo Mebude, on loan at Queen of the South, have been told to isolate after breaking lockdown regulations at the weekend.

Zungu, Patterson and Bassey have been mostly used as back-ups this season but would have been in the Gers group for the first leg of the Europa League last-32 tie against Royal Antwerp in Belgium on Thursday night.

However, before flying out from Glasgow Airport, Light Blues boss Gerrard was asked about the depth of squad he now had to work with and said: “We are fine, we will cover, we will manage, it is not ideal, that’s for sure.

“But what we have got is players who are with us at the moment who have no ego and will, if needed, sacrifice themselves to do a job for the team and the group.

“We will manage, we will cope and go from there.

“We have had no disruption this week in terms of our preparation on the training pitch.

“We have had decent numbers even though obviously they have changed with the three or four missing who are usually training with us on a daily basis.

“But it hasn’t had any interruption in terms of our preparation. We still have had quality in numbers.”

Indeed, Gerrard insists his players have a “twinkle” in the eye as they prepared for their return to European football after beating Kilmarnock 1-0 at Ibrox on Saturday to keep them flying high at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

The former Liverpool and England captain, who has Alfredo Morelos and fellow striker Kemar Roofe back after suspension, added: “Since the weekend after another positive result and a clean sheet, the players had a day off and we went straight into our Antwerp preparation.

“I don’t know whether the boys have got the bit between the teeth but they certainly look in the zone and focused and ready to put in a performance tomorrow night.

“Now I can only gauge the mood and where I think they are at and I am really content where we are at, going in to the game.

“I can see a twinkle in the boys’ eyes, they are really ready to go and if training is anything to go by, we are about to put in a performance.”