In July this year, Nico Raskin went toe to toe with the best team on the planet and narrowly came out on the wrong end of a World Cup quarter-final in Los Angeles.

The 2-1 defeat to eventual winners Spain, who needed an 88th minute goal from Mikel Merino to see off Raskin and his Belgian team-mates, looked certain to be the last time the midfielder would represent his country as a Rangers player.

Raskin had further enhanced his reputation during the tournament and there was widespread expectation and acceptance the Ibrox club would cash in on their biggest playing asset during the summer transfer window.

Instead, the 25-year-old found himself in limbo. From the highs of playing on the biggest stage of them all with Belgium, Raskin was left out of many of Rangers’ early-season matches as they looked to protect him against any injury which might scupper a lucrative sale.

While there was interest in Raskin, when the deadline finally came and went there had been no offers or opportunities which appealed both to the player and his club.

Speaking for the first time about his uncertain summer, Raskin presented a picture of philosophical contentment with the situation he now finds himself in.

Restored to the Rangers team, he has been a key figure in their recent revival after a desperate start to the season. Raskin is relishing life under Derek McInnes and is determined to finally start collecting the silverware which has eluded him since he first moved to Ibrox from Standard Liege in a £1.5million deal almost four years ago.

‘When you’re an ambitious player, you want to keep going higher and higher and higher, so I thought there was a point where maybe I could try and go and get a new challenge after the World Cup,’ he said.

‘But I’ve never been pushing for something because I’m really happy here, it’s a big club. This club helped me to join the Belgian national team, which is a big thing for me. So I’m really calm with that.

‘If something came along and everybody was happy with it, then I would have looked to see if I could do it or not. But I don’t need to push anything.

‘I’m happy, the manager has been amazing with me since he arrived, so it was good this year to have that support from the manager.

‘I just took it day by day during the window, to see where that would take me. The noise is always there, people calling you, people asking where you are, what’s happening, which is normal.

‘I’ve been long enough in football right now, so I’ve lived a few windows now, I know how to deal with them. I was fine with that.

‘The hardest part was not being able to play in some of the games, because then you’re just at home and you watch the boys playing, so that was probably the hardest bit I’ve been through.

‘I remember one of them, we prepared for the game and then I just learned on the day that I couldn’t play.

‘When the window shut, I was back training, back playing and back giving everything I have for the club, so it wasn’t that difficult.’

Raskin still has 18 months remaining on his Rangers contract and it remains to be seen whether the club will be able to resist any fresh offers made for him in January.

‘I don’t know, it’s not up to me,’ he said. ‘It’s up to the club. I’m just trying to work every day as hard as I can and trying to give a good performance on the pitch. We’ll see what happens.

‘I’m actually just looking at the next game, making sure we win and bounce back from the last game, and then we’ll see what happens.

‘We’ve got loads of time before January, so we’ll try to make the best of it, we’ll try to win as many games as we can. After that, I don’t know what’s going to happen.’

Raskin is certain he can thrive under McInnes and believes Rangers are now equipped to mount a serious challenge for domestic dominance in Scotland this season.

‘I remember playing against his teams at Kilmarnock and Hearts and it’s probably always been the toughest games we’ve had since I arrived at Rangers,’ he said.

‘So now I’m happy with him coming in here. From the first time I spoke with him, I could feel the love he had for this club. I could feel the ambition he had, and I think the club is in good hands, so I’m very happy for that.

‘As for our relationship, he just understands us, he understands what we’ve been through also and he’s helping everyone as much as he can, so it’s great for us.

‘It’s good to directly feel the support, feel the love from the manager, and that just gives you the willingness to give everything for him on the pitch.

‘I think he’s a top manager. If you speak with all the players he’s managed, they probably would all say the same. But I also have to say he did surprise me a few times with the tactical part. It’s amazing to work under him.

‘I see the group growing. I see the personality in the group growing and you could see in the Celtic games that we showed character and personality on the pitch, playing man for man.

‘We played really well, winning all those 50-50 duels and it’s something you don’t see very often. So it’s good, and we need to build on that.

‘I know everyone’s speaking about how we drew at Dundee last week, but it’s just a one-off — or we need to make sure it was just a one-off.

‘We will lose games, we will drop points. But it’s just a matter of how do you bounce back from that? How do you create a new momentum? How many victories can you put together in a row to help you be in the best way at the end of the season?

‘The season is long, we still have loads of games to play. There’s no panic because we lost two points last week. It’s just about Saturday against St Johnstone now, winning the game and making sure we are ready for Hearts on Wednesday then the semi-final against Aberdeen next Saturday.

‘Winning the cup, winning the league, then winning the other cup. That’s what a good season is at Rangers. You can’t be satisfied with one, you have to want more.’