Rangers arrived at Glasgow Airport on Thursday afternoon to fly out to Australia but teenage defender Danny Wilson was not in the travelling party. STV Sport has learned that the player has travelled to Liverpool and a transfer to the Anfield club is expected to be concluded shortly.

The deal could be concluded in time for Wilson to fly out to Switzerland for the English Premier League side’s friendly against Grasshopper Zurich on Wednesday night. The match, which will be Roy Hodgson’s first in charge of the Reds, may even see Wilson make his first appearance for the club alongside Joe Cole, who is expected to make his debut after joining the club no a free transfer.

Liverpool failed with a £2 million bid for Wilson earlier this year and are believed to have rejected two offers in January but Rangers manager Walter Smith admitted in May that he expected the club to return with an improved offer. The clubs now appear to have reached an agreement and Smith left the player out of the squad for the trip down under.

Wilson has one year remaining on his contract but, although he would be free to move at the end of that deal, Rangers would be due compensation. Under rules covering the development of players, that compensation is likely to be in the region of £650,000 and a transfer fee significantly higher than that fee would be difficult for the Ibrox club to turn down with the player having rejected a new contract offer.

Wilson broke through into the Rangers first team last season and put in a series of impressive performance, making his Champions League debut and forming an assured defensive partnership with David Weir. Filling in for Madjid Bougherra when the Algerian international was injured, Wilson caught the eye as one of the outstanding prospects in Scottish football and was named as the Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year.  

Should the transfer be finalised, Wilson would be the sixth player to leave Ibrox since the season ended. Nacho Novo, DaMarcus Beasley, Stevie Smith and Kris Boyd all left under freedom of contract and Kevin Thomson was sold to Middlesbrough last week.

Walter Smith has been acting to try to strengthen the squad ahead of their SPL title defence but saw a bid to take Chris Eagles to Ibrox collapse after the Burnley player failed to agree financial terms. Norwegian Under-19 defender Krister Wemberg is currently on trial at the club.