The joy was quickly followed by the sober realisation that the final sprint will be painful. Christian Dailly stood in the Ibrox tunnel after the roars of battle had died and reflected on his first Old Firm match before revealing that Rangers may limp to the title.

"It was a tremendous experience," he said. "It was like having earphones on when we first went out there - the noise felt so close. It's incredible, you can't hear a thing. I've played in a number of big games over the course of my career but, even so, this was amazing."

Dailly, of course, was one of four Rangers players who missed Scotland's draw against Croatia through injury but played on Saturday. The defensive midfielder, who has a broken toe, was irked by the criticism over the withdrawals.

"I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to play," he said of Saturday's match. "I tried to jog on the Tuesday, but I couldn't - it was just too sore."

He has taken painkillers to recover. "I'm totally loaded up and that was the only way I could get through it," he said. "I'm on everything. I'm peeing brown stuff. Even with all that, it was still sore."

Dailly knows that he and several of his team-mates face an exciting but demanding end to the season. "I'm going to try to play through it," he said of an injury that was sustained in the league match against Hibernian. "The medical people will keep an eye on it."

He will not receive any pain-killing injections. "They don't like to give you a jab here," he said. "I would do anything to play, but that's not how Rangers like to do it. It's basically just the strongest tablets the doctor can find."

Dailly quietly but insistently defended the withdrawals from the Scotland squad. "I have been playing for Scotland for about 20 years across age levels. I've never pulled out from a squad. There is an SFA policy. I had an X-ray last weekend and it showed by toe was broken. In that circumstance, Scotland just don't take you.

"It's the same with the other boys we had injured last week. All are carrying injuries and none of them would have been able to train. They were all told there was no point in going."

He added: "What it gives you is a snapshot of what it's like when you play the number of games we have. These are the things a lot of the boys are carrying. That's what happens in football. Half our team will be carrying something and I'm sure half the Celtic boys will be as well."

He was also cautious in the wake of an emotional victory, saying there was work to be done before the title was claimed. "We don't look at it being over at all," he said. "We're obviously in a decent position. But there is no doubt it's possible we could lose a couple of the games we've got left.

"There are tough ones coming up, with Dundee United away next up. If we're not bang on our game, we could quite easily lose. But the team has good experience and some talented players. We're very focused."

That concentration will be crucial as Rangers attempt to vault the pain barrier on the road to the title.