THE pressure has been taken off Rangers in their pursuit of Colin Hendry, after they were granted a work permit for Romanian central defender Daniel Prodan.

Rangers, who have so far refused to budge on their original £2.5 million offer for Hendry, seem quite willing to let Blackburn Rovers stew - their unwanted approach having left Roy Hodgson with an unhappy player he cannot use.

At the same time, their own desperation has been eased by the granting of Rodan's work permit.

He was signed last week by Ibrox boss Dick Advocaat when he thought any chance of getting Hendry was gone.

And now Rodan has been cleared to play in Rangers' opening Scottish League clash with Hearts on Sunday, as well as being available for their UEFA Cup second qualifying round tie.

Ewood chief executive John Williams admitted today the Hendry situation was "problematic" and it seems that no progress has been made, despite two more rounds of talks with Ibrox chairman David Murray yesterday.

Hodgson has no plans to rush into the transfer market, for he hasn't ruled out the possibility that Hendry might yet stay at Ewood. "There will not be any panic from our point of view and no drastic dash into the transfer market in order to field 11 players on the opening day of the season," he said.

Hodgson takes his squad, minus Hendry, to Ipswich tonight and said: "I think it's quite correct that we give the situation a few days and we give him a few days in order for it to be resolved one way or the other.

"As far as we are concerned we were prepared to accept what we thought was the inevitable, but now we have found it's not inevitable because Glasgow Rangers have a different valuation of the player." Despite their differences, Rovers have not discussed taking action against Rangers.

"The fact is there are rules and regulations but they seem to be broken quite often," he added.

"But certainly no-one at the club has talked in any way about punishing or wanting to take Glasgow Rangers to task for their approach.

"Albeit I suppose that God is on our side in that area. "This is a rule that seems to exist on paper but doesn't have much relevance in daily life.

"It's like some of the laws on the statute book. If five friends and myself stand around a lamp post we could actually be arrested under the Tolpuddle Martyrs Act!

"But it doesn't happen any more."

It is not all doom and gloom for the Rovers boss, however, as he is set to welcome Jason Wilcox and Billy McKinlay back into the side tonight after their summer operations.

Both are expected to start the game with several others who sat out Monday's game at Wolves also in the line-up. Gary Croft, who has had an injection to ease his niggling back injury, will miss the game, giving Callum Davidson a chance to impress.

As Hodgson revealed yesterday, Jim Corbett is out for around three weeks with a thigh muscle problem.

He was injured as a mainly young reserve side beat Chester 5-0 behind closed doors at Brockhall. It was the same Chester team that had drawn with Everton a few days earlier.

Hodgson hopes that Damien Duff, Anders Andersson and Kevin Gallacher can all restart training at some stage next week.

Rovers have special hospitality packages on offer for next Friday's game against PSV Eindhoven, price £49-50 including food, bar facility and match ticket. For more information call 01254-69090.

Tickets are now on open sale for the first Premiership game against Derby at Ewood on Saturday, August 15, price £18-25 (concessions £10).

Seats are available by personal application, post or credit card on freephone 0321-101010. The ticket office is open 9am-5.30pm Mon-Fri and 9am-12.30pm Sat.

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