The Scotland cap has not played a single minute of first-team football following his move from Ibrox

Boss boss Kim Hellberg has cooled speculation over Connor Barron returning early to Rangers - as he backed him to get it right at Middlesbrough.

The 24-year-old has yet to play a single minute for the club after arriving in the English Championship in a late deadline day move from Ibrox.

Barron fell fell out of the picture for the Light Blues amid a major recruitment drive last summer and was allowed to leave by Derek McInnes in search of game time.

However, the switch to the Riverside has not worked out so far for the Scotland cap as he continues to wait for his first-team debut.

The Aberdeen academy graduate was an unused substitute on the bench in the Championship win over Wolves last weekend - following on from an appearance in a friendly against Newcastle during the international break.

Last week, Barron's former Ibrox boss Barry Ferguson suggested that Rangers should cut the midfielder's spell away from Glasgow short in January and re-asses his options.

But Hellberg backed Barron and Leo Castledine - who has also struggled for minutes - to make an impression before the end of the campaign, and use the example set by their Boro teammates.

He told the Northern Echo: "My job is not to give people things or be kind. You have to measure things all the time. Sometimes it's down to competition, sometimes it's down to the performance, how they train and all those things.

"For both Connor and Leo, they've done a lot of good things lately on the training ground and sometimes for a player it can be down to a little bit of luck. Both of them are doing everything they can on the ground.

"That's sometimes the balance as a coach, I should rest people and I should not rest people, they should come in and they should not come in.

"For everyone, the message is just to keep going. The chance will come if you work hard and the difficult thing for players when you don't get the minutes is to keep working hard.

"Both Leo and Connor are exceptional in that, and that is important because their chance [of playing] goes up. Then you need to be ready. Look at last season, [Alex] Gilbert wasn't even close but he gets that chance and did very good things. Now it's the same thing.

"There was no-one thinking Neto [Borges] should play a game here and now look at him. It's important, in tough times, to keep working and take your chance when you get it."

Speaking last week, Rangers legend Ferguson said: "You would need to bring him back, and listen, if he's not going to be part of the plans he needs to go somewhere to play. He is good enough to play.

"Wee Connor, in my opinion, is a really good player. He is at an age where he needs to play every single week.

"If he is not going to get any game time - which I am surprised at Middlesbrough, why would they take him if they are not going to play him? - you would need to bring him back and maybe try to get him another loan."