Pedro Caixinha insists Kenny Miller missed Rangers' Friday night win over St Johnstone due to injury, despite claims he has been frozen out of the first-team squad.

The striker has not been selected by the Ibrox manager since a series of dressing room leaks in the wake of last month's defeat to Old Firm rivals Celtic.

Miller's agent, Dave Baldwin, posted a defiant defence of his client online on Tuesday, suggesting the striker had been made a scapegoat for the leaks by being frozen out of the squad.

But speaking to RangersTV, Caixinha claims the 37-year-old is suffering with a hamstring injury.

"Kenny was a question of precaution, he trained OK before the match and then did a sort of treatment on Friday and now he's four days further on so he is able to start training today [Tuesday].

"He pulled something in a finishing drill last week, something on the hamstring."

However Baldwin's earlier post on Instagram appeared to suggest there was no injury, and that the player was being shown disrespect by his manager after missing the wins over Hamilton Accies and St Johnstone.

Meanwhile, Rangers have welcomed Niko Kranjcar and Danny Wilson back into the squad following injury, ahead of their League Cup semi final against Motherwell on Sunday.

"Niko and Danny will be with us from the start of this week, like Kenny, David Bates and Ryan Jack," he continued. "They were more or less available to be with us but were out from the last game.

"We hope to have some news with Jordan Rossiter as well this week so things are going in the right direction to have the whole group together again.

"Niko and Danny now need rhythm, they are training on a daily basis and it was important for them to get minutes in order to get the rhythm and once they have that then they are fighting with the others.

"Lee Wallace is also progressing, he is the last one on the list but we know he is going to take time, probably between three or four weeks."