Danilo makes Rangers injury return as striker features alongside first-team stars in B-team clash vs Briedablik

Rangers striker Danilo has shared a touching thank you message to the club’s medical staff who accelerated his comeback after making his comeback from a sickening facial injury.

The £5million summer signing from Dutch giants Feyenoord suffered a fractured cheekbone against St Johnstone following an accidental collision with defender Liam Gordon on September 16. The injury required the 24-year-old to undergo surgery and he had been keeping fans updated on his road to recovery over the past five weeks.

And he made an unexpected return to the pitch a week earlier than anticipated after initially being informed it would take at least six weeks for such an injury to heal properly.

Danilo came off the bench for the final 10 minutes during the 4-0 Scottish Premiership victory over Hibernian at Ibrox on Saturday. He wore a protective face mask for the first time before new boss Philippe Clement decided to drop a host of first-team players down for a bounce match against Icelandic side Briedablik on Sunday as he aims to build the overall fitness of the squad.

The Brazilian led the line against their UEFA Europa Conference League opponents and was joined in the starting line-up by Leon Balgoun, Ben Davies and Robby McCrorie as well as youngsters Leon King, Adam Devine, Bailey Rice and Ross McCausland who have played more of their football for David McCallum’s B-team.

Despite falling to 3-2 defeat at the Rangers Training Centre, Danilo revealed his delight at being back out on the pitch on social media. He tweeted: “A special thanks to the medical team who took care of my injury. Finally on the field again after 5 weeks instead of 6... I feel really blessed.”

Danilo will now aim to ignite his Ibrox career under Clement’s guidance and start to live up to his lofty transfer fee, starting against Sparta Prague in the Europa League on Thursday.