Rangers striker Martyn Waghorn remains hopeful of returning to action in time for next month's Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic at Hampden.

The forward damaged knee ligaments during the club's 2-1 Scottish Cup win over Kilmarnock in February with the initial prognosis seeing the former Wigan attacker ruled out for "six to eight weeks".

Rangers' top scorer says he remains ahead of schedule in his recovery and has promised fans they will see him back on the field before the end of the campaign.

Earlier this month, manager Mark Warburton vowed not to risk the forward unless he was 100% fit .

Speaking to Rangers' website, Waghorn said: "The last six or so weeks have been tough, playing Dundee in the cup game and then knowing we have Celtic coming up – hopefully I can get fit and in contention for that.

"If everything goes well then there is a chance I could be involved against Celtic but that is just if everything goes spot on."

The Englishman admits it has been hard to watch his team's push for the Championship title from the sidelines, adding:  "I have to be 100% ready – I want to push myself but I don’t want to push myself too far in case we get further on in the competition or rule myself out of the latter stages of the season. So I’ll push myself but I have to be cautious too.

"I’m a little bit ahead of schedule. It is going well but I don’t want to say it is going great until I can go outside because I haven’t tested it as much, we’ll know more in the next week to 10 days about whether I am ready to come back.”

"Hopefully next week I will be allowed outside, I can start running on the treadmill then so the next 10 days will be important.

"You will definitely see me in a Rangers shirt before the end of the season; I want to be back by then."