Gascoigne on bench again

With England's World Cup warm-up match against Chile at Wembley just over three weeks away, there is little sign of Paul Gascoigne's return to first-team football with Rangers. The midfielder seems certain to be on the bench once again this afternoon, when the Scottish champions are at home to Motherwell.

Gascoigne has played only 18 minutes of league football since November 29th. That was in the Old Firm game at Parkhead on January 2nd, when he was a substitute. Walter Smith, the Rangers manager, did not play him at Parkhead in the Ne'erday match because he thought he was not ready. Gascoigne contracted flu last week and had not trained before the home game with Aberdeen, so Smith left him on the bench. The manager indicated yesterday that he would not change a side that produced "our best form of the season".

But Smith insisted that Gascoigne will be back in the team "sooner rather than later" and that Glenn Hoddle should not yet start to fret over the fitness of one of his prize assets.

"His weight's good," said Smith, "but his conditioning will be all the better for finally having had a full week's training. But, for the Motherwell match, we have to look at how the team performed against Aberdeen last Saturday. It was the best we've played this season, so you wouldn't want to go changing things."

This means that Rangers will also continue without top scorer Marco Negri, who missed last week because of an eye injury sustained while playing squash.

Celtic travel to a difficult assignment with Dundee United, with Tommy Johnson, the former Villa midfielder, returned to the squad. Johnson, unable to command a place in Wim Jansen's team, had been expected to join Crystal Palace on loan. "That will not happen now, because Tommy has told me he wants to stay with Celtic and fight for his place," said Jansen.

"The loan to Palace was not called off for any technical reasons, Johnson just didn't think it was right for him. I've spoken to him and I'm glad he wants to work here, but I've let him know, as I do every player here, that I can't guarantee him a place in the team. That has to be earned."

Tommy Boyd is missing as he starts a three-match suspension.