Glasgow Rangers manager Ally McCoist has revealed that the club have opened up discussions with Maurice Edu over extending his stay at Ibrox.

The American international has 18 months remaining on his current deal and McCoist believes that the time is right for talks to get underway.

"We've spoken to Lyle Yorks, a smashing lad who represents Maurice, about keeping him here," McCoist told the club's official website. "It has been well documented that we are looking at keeping Kyle Lafferty here and like him, Maurice has 18 months to go on his current deal.

"It is common knowledge you have to make it be known that you want to extend deals at this stage and that's where we are with both of those players at the moment.

"We've been very pleased with him. The one thing Maurice does do is work extremely hard - he's a real grafter and a workaholic. That's a massive part of his game."

Edu, 25, joined Rangers in 2008 from Canadian side Toronto FC.