JAMES TAVERNIER insists he never considered a spell on the sidelines whilst suffering from a knee knock during the first half of the season.

The captain will lead Rangers out in the first competitive match of the Michael Beale era when Hibernian make the trip to Ibrox this evening.

The Premiership clash will be a 27th outing of a hectic campaign for Tavernier and the schedule took its toll on the right-back earlier in the term.

A knee issue caused him discomfort for several weeks but he refused to miss out as Giovanni van Bronckhorst's side competed in the Champions League, Premiership and League Cup.

And Tavernier has put the World Cup break to good use after resting and recovering ahead of the return to action under the guidance of new boss Beale.

Tavernier said: "You have to play through injuries and knocks here and there. But if you ask any footballer, in a team there are not many players that will come back and say they are 100 per cent.

"Everyone has always got a little knock or a kick here. It is about how much desire you want to play and if you want to go to the trenches.

"You want those players that don’t give in too easy and I was never going to give in too easy and give my all to the team.

READ MORE: Michael Beale makes Rangers title admission ahead of Premiership bow

"You would have to drag me away. Even if it is a cup game and they are willing to rest us to save the legs, you still have to drag me away from a game.

"I want to play every single minute and try and give my all for the team.

"You could say that [it was a captain's duty]. But I think it is just me as a person. I have always been like that, I always give my all and never back away from anything.

"As a captain you have that responsibility so I will always try and lead by example.

"Maybe [it was restricting me] at the start. The first one was maybe the Ajax game when I got brought off and I was probably feeling it more.

"As time went on, it eased off. It wasn’t really impacting me too much."