Steven Gerrard today gave the harshest condemnation yet of Steven Davis’ return to Ibrox by admitting his absence from the draw against Aberdeen was entirely selection based.

The Northern Irishman was conspicuous by his omission from the entire matchday squad, citing many to assume injury, but Gerrard has confirmed the former Fulham man wasn’t injured and was just simply not included even on the bench.

He said:

“We’ll make decisions after training today. No, [he wasn’t injured for Pittodrie], yes, [it was personal selection preference].”

This bodes extremely badly for the big January signing brought back to Ibrox amidst much fanfare.

In truth, Davis has deeply struggled with the pace of the Scottish game on his return, and while some of his play has been tidy and he’s shown some decent vision, his general impact upon the team is negligible and it’s evident to see why Southampton had absolutely no qualms letting him go.

Which is far from ideal – Davis is 34 now and while the last thing we want to do is react knee jerk and suggest he’s finished, nevertheless his age certainly counts against him, and he appears to be barely even be on the fringes of the starting XI despite the notion a seasoned international veteran and former club captain would be a stick on for a first team berth.

Davis is going to have to do more and prove he’s worthy of game time, because right now there is a queue of players in far better form ahead of him.

Which, frankly, isn’t that bad a problem for Steven Gerrard to have, really.