But the former Bordeaux frontman flew with the rest of the squad to Lyon this morning, having undergone intensive treatment on his hamstring yesterday.

After seeing the 32-year-old lead the line magnificently in Rangers’ 2-1 win over Stuttgart in their Champions League opener a fortnight ago, Smith would be desperate to start with Darcheville.

But the boss today insisted he would take no gambles on Darcheville’s fitness, for fear of the player causing further damage and missing future games.

“The biggest factor in the decision will be whether we will be taking the risk of losing Jean-Claude for a longer period of time if we play him tomorrow night,” said Smith.

“He is really doubtful for the game. And he will have to show that there is no chance that we will cause further damage to his injury by playing him too early.”

Smith has Daniel Cousin, Lee McCulloch, Nacho Novo and Kris Boyd to choose from should Darcheville lose his fitness race, with Cousin the likely replacement given his ability to lead the line on his own.

Novo, who came on as a substitute in the Stuttgart win, admits having Darcheville available would be a major boost to the team.

“He’s a great player, very strong and does a lot for the team,” said the Spaniard.

“It gives a lot of confidence to the team to have a player like this.

“I don’t know how he will be but it would be a big miss. But other players from the squad will try to do their best.”

Smith has sought inspiration from the opening-day competition win over the German champions, as well as Scotland’s stunning recent victory against France, in the build-up to tomorrow night’s encounter.

Those two results helped restore the feelgood factor to Scottish football, and Smith is not discounting another major coup.

He said: “I don’t think the recent results have done us any harm.

“The national team has been doing very well and that, of course, gives everyone a massive lift, as did our result against Stuttgart.

“From a Rangers point of view, we now want to carry that on this season by achieving good results. But we know that every game will be very tough, and we are expecting a difficult 90 minutes against Lyon.

“All of the games away from home will be a big test for us in terms of our defending and our ability to attack from defensive positions.

“But our aim tomorrow night has to be to get as good a result as we can possibly get and all the players will be up for the challenge.”

Lyon began their Champions League campaign with a 3-0 reverse at Barcelona, and will looking to get points on the board in their first home game.

They have a strong recent record in the tournament – they are perennial qualifiers for the knockout stages – and are hard to beat on home turf.

But Rangers midfielder Charlie Adam said: “Anything is possible in football, you saw that with the national team a few weeks ago.

“And at club level it’s the same – anything is possible and hopefully we can get the same result.”

Adam was on loan to St Mirren when Rangers reached the last 16 of the tournament two seasons ago.

But he was an integral part of the squad last season as they got to the same stage of the UEFA Cup, before bowing out to Osasuna.

The 21-year-old feels Rangers’ recent record in European competition gives them added belief.

“It’s going to be difficult, we are not trying to kid ourselves,” he said.

“They are good side, they have quality players. But you never know in Europe with Rangers.

“We have produced a few results over the past couple of years and hopefully we can get another one.

“We got the result against Stuttgart so we are always confident going into the game.”