Image copyright SNS Image caption Ovie Ejaria was back in training with Rangers on Friday

Steven Gerrard hopes to "get inside" Ovie Ejaria's mind after the "unsettled" midfielder was left out of Rangers' defeat by Rapid Vienna.

The Rangers manager said the 21-year-old Englishman, on a season's loan from Liverpool, "didn't seem in the right frame of mind to travel to Austria".

Gerrard plans to speak to Ejaria further on Friday after training.

"Ovie's a quiet kid," he said. "He doesn't give you much, so we are going to try to get inside Ovie."

Gerrard hopes to "see how he's feeling and why he's unsettled and go from there".

Ejaria has made 28 Rangers appearances, with all but five being starts.

But he was also dropped for last month's Europa League draw with Villarreal and was on the bench for Sunday's 1-1 draw away to Dundee.

Asked if it had been a long-standing issue, Gerrard said: "I've been made aware of it quite recently and so have Liverpool."

The manager explained that he so far had only had a chance to have a "quick chat" with Ejaria and decided to leave him behind "for the benefit of the group".

"I will be speaking to Ovie today and will be speaking to Liverpool today and we'll discuss what's next for the player," he added.