Rangers' surrender of three points at Motherwell in midweek has been followed by the loss of the forwards Jonatan Johansson and Gordon Durie to injury.

If today's home match against Dundee United is a testing occasion for the coach Dick Advocaat, the Dutchman had the good sense yesterday to shift the burden on to his Argentinian forward Gabriel Amato.

Amato, for whom the Ibrox club paid Real Mallorca more than £4 million, has struggled to find any semblance of form and was dropped five weeks ago. Advocaat is forced to reinstate him today, but not without a warning.

"He has had to play a different style with Rangers from the one he was used to in Spain," said Advocaat. "He's been here four months now and he has to start doing it for us on the field."

Durie's achilles tendon injury, sustained during the 1-0 defeat at Motherwell, is causing some concern, as the Scotland striker has only just returned from a 10-week absence caused by a broken ankle. "We don't know the extent of the damage yet," said Advocaat. "We just have to hope it's not serious."

Johansson, who has been playing well and scoring regularly, has a groin problem which is not expected to keep him out long but Rangers could still be short of forwards for Thursday's home UEFACup second leg against Bayer Leverkusen.

The Dundee United manager Paul Sturrock will bring in the French full-back Bernard Pascal in place of Magnus Skoldmark.

Celtic, having moved into third place four points behind Rangers, visit Kilmarnock, who are immediately above them in the Premier League. Their injury problems in defence have not improved, with Marc Rieper, Alan Stubbs and Enrico Annoni all still unavailable.

Lubomir Moravcik, the Slovakian midfielder signed from MSV Duisburg in midweek, is in the squad but is unlikely to start the match. "We will probably give him a little time to settle and adapt, as we always do with new players," said the coach Jozef Venglos, who will probably keep the side which beat Aberdeen last week.

Kilmarnock are likely to have to continue without Ally McCoist, who is having trouble with a calf muscle. His place will be taken by Mark Roberts, who scored against St Johnstone a week ago.