The look in his eye told its own story. It was all the confirmation that Michael Beale needed about what the future holds for Steven Davis.
The knee injury that Davis sustained just before Christmas was a cruel blow to the midfielder and his manager. On the eve of his 38th birthday, it ruled him out for the remainder of the campaign and will deny him matches and memories, and potentially medals, in the twilight of his career.
Davis has naturally seen his minutes on the park scaled back as a result of his advancing years, but his influence at Ibrox has never waned and he remains an integral component of Beale's squad even though he will not be part of the side that is bidding for a League Cup and Scottish Cup double this term.
Beale has a plethora of players that he can utilise in the central roles of his team but nobody else within his group has the attributes - mental, technical and tactical - that the elder statesman of his midfield possesses.
Davis is a standout as a player and a person. Like all good things, though, his career will come to an end at some point and every word of praise and appreciation that will follow from supporters of Rangers and Northern Ireland will be thoroughly merited.
That time will come. It would be so unjust, so cruel, for it to arrive prematurely as a result of an injury and the man himself will be the most determined one of all to make sure that he can pull on his boots for club and country once again.
“He’s back in the training ground," Beale said. “He’s had the op and he’s in and around the lads. I saw that glint in his eye.
“Michael O’Neil has gone back to be the national coach and I know he has a fantastic relationship with him. Steven Davis will have a magnitude of options.
“He was going to be a key player for us between now and the end of the season and we have missed him.
“Times like at Kilmarnock when we were 3-1 in front. I just think Steven would have made better decisions for the group.
“Maybe a little word in one or two ears, so we are missing him. He’s got a long road in terms of his recovery, but I think everything is in Steven’s hands.”
The last game that Davis played was the first one that Beale took charge of at Ibrox. It was a situation that typified the role the midfielder now undertakes as he entered the action just minutes after Rangers had recovered to lead 3-2 against Hibernian.
Davis had a job to do and, as always, he performed it with aplomb as he helped Beale get off and running on his return to Rangers and the importance of that victory cannot be understated for the manager or the team that he has guided through a difficult phase of the campaign.
His qualities on the park are not always needed but his presence off it remains invaluable. Few know Rangers better than Davis and he is an example for others to follow, a figure for them to aspire to in the way that he works and represents himself and the club.
"Listen, he’s in every day, he’s talking to people at lunchtimes," Beale said. “Someone like Steven in a one-to-one with a young Adam Devine or Alex Lowry, you’ve got to allow Steven to be Steven.
“It was the same when Jermain Defoe was here. He’d have a chat with Calvin Bassey or Joe Aribo at lunch and that helped form where their minds are.
“A lot is made sometimes about age but the experiences some of these boys have had, I need them to be an extension of me. Steven is certainly that.
“He’s very calm, he thinks about the group and not himself. Allan McGregor is the same.
“Allan is at an age where he thinks about the team. Any messaging we put in the meetings they try and feed through."
The impact that Beale has made since returning as manager speaks for itself in terms of the results. Yet it can also be measured in the feeling around the club and players speak of higher standards, increased workrate in training and a more familiar approach on a matchday as the differences between Beale and the final weeks of Giovanni van Bronckhorst's tenure.
The summer transfer window will see the squad begin to evolve. Further players will be recruited and the end of the season will mark the end of many Ibrox careers as Beale seeks to re-energise the group and alter the age profile after seeing the same faces play their part season after season.
It can often be easy for supporters to dismiss the value of experience on both sides of the white line. Beale can only do so much in both situations and having figures like Davis in and around the group gives the manager a conduit that is invaluable.
Beale said: “There’s an element isn’t there? You’re the coach and you talk in the changing room.
“But when the players go out it’s the voices in between, who’s the glue between you and the squad. We have a number of them here.
“I see talk about the older players, that we need to turn them over. I don’t think people realise the importance some people have as to why a team plays a certain way. I like to have all the seniors in and around the changing room.
"When you look at the group that went on the long journey through Europe these past few years and you see that the vast majority of them didn’t play in the Champions League this season then it’s not really a surprise to me that the group struggled. The team had built up huge confidence over a number of years in the Europa League.
“If you start taking four or five of those out the team because of injury and different circumstances then the new boys coming in didn’t live that journey. So it’s important we remember and respect what we did and cleverly evolve.
“It’s not rapid. You don’t go out with the old and in with the new. It doesn’t work. I think you have to phase it and the right time.”
The coming months will determine if the moment has come for Davis to leave Ibrox. The call over his future is just one of several that Beale will have to make now that the Ulsterman is, alongside the likes of McGregor, Ryan Jack and Scott Arfield, in the final months of his contract.
Each situation is different and no sweeping decisions can be made as Beale plans for the future. Every individual will, of course, have their own say on where they see themselves from the summer onwards.
“They are still playing, you can’t put words into their mouths and you can’t retire anyone," Beale said. “That’s down to the players. But with both those guys, why wouldn’t we want to tap into their experience?
“I don’t know if they want to go down the coaching route, whether it’s via the academy or the first team. I have seen that work really well at my time at Liverpool.
“The ex-players come back and they see where they’re at. Some enjoy just staying within the academy, others want to try management.
“Steven Davis and Scotty Arfield might want to go down that route, Scotty might want to go back to music and that was his first love.
“They’ve got a lot of options. They’ve both been international captains and they won’t be short of opportunities in life. They know how much I think of them.”
