IT was a public embrace which only added to the welling of tears between two strangers, brought together in the rawest of circumstances. It lasted only a matter of seconds, yet it felt like an eternity to the thousands watching on.

Many of them men filled up until that point with bravado and beer, now reduced to averting their gaze suddenly, dabbing their eyes on the blue, red and white scarves draped around their sunburnt necks.

Sitting largely motionless in a wheelchair wearing a bright red Lionbrand Rangers polo shirt royal blue scarf of his own, the frail figure of Fernando Ricksen, once a colossus of a revered Ibrox team with a domestic treble at the heart of its legacy, wept.

Taking in the moment, he was pushed around the green turf on a lap of honour by former team-mate Jorg Albertz and organiser Stan Gordon at the end of his charity foundation match here on the English coast, receiving the ovation from those who have followed his heart-breaking battle with motor neuron disease since 2013.

Eventually the 40-year-old came to a stop 10 yards from the main stand, when a fan emerged from the crowd to comfort him as the former Netherlands internationalist’s name bellowed out. There were around 4500 others who all wished they could do the same.

The image brought a bruising dunt of reality and poignancy with all the subtlety of two-footed lunge to the shin on what had for the large part been a day for pageantry at Fleetwood Town’s Highbury Stadium. Not that those in attendance really needed it. Thousands of Rangers supporters had made the three-hour journey south on a pilgrimage to pay tribute to a man whose passion and loyalty during his six years at the club endured through sporting highs and lows. Now in his own incredible time of struggle, both are being returned to him, quite literally with open arms.

“It’s so hard to see him. In the dressing room when you look at him you can see in his heart he is there but he can’t move,” said a normally larger-than-life Marvin Andrews, the former Rangers defender’s tone now reduced to a more sombre note. “He sits watching everyone enjoying themselves and you can only picture what is going through his mind.

“You just wish he could get out of the wheelchair and gather round with everyone and be the Fernando we all remember. He has developed an illness that is the opposite to the person he was. That is the sad thing about it. He was in the dressing room and people all came in to see him but he can’t really communicate.

“He tries his best but it’s really difficult. As much as it’s an enjoyable occasion it’s hard. You can see he wants to do something and take part but he just can’t and that’s the heart-breaking thing about it.”

As a player Ricksen was a no-nonsense character who was loved by all those on his side and, well, not so much by those who he regularly came up against. It is a measure of the respect he carries that such sporting difference is laid to one side to raise money for an MND foundation in his name, and more importantly offer words of support to him and his family as his fight continues.

On Saturday the 40-year-old sat at the side of the home dugout in the town just outside Blackpool watching those former team-mates give up their time for such a worthy cause. Names like Charlie Miller – who went in goals during a bizarre second half cameo – Arthur Numan and Michael Mols all turned out for a Rangers select side, while Paul Ince had the likes of Paul Walsh, Darren Anderton and Des Walker to pick from. Three Rangers supporters also paid £500 to play. “It was a beautiful day, God arranged everything perfectly,” added Andrews, who managed to grab a goal in a narrow 3-2 defeat.

Given the gravity of his old friend’s battle, the matter of picking apart the current frailties of the current incumbents of the Rangers home dressing room seems almost trivial. However, Andrews is sure in his mind just where Pedro Caixinha’s squad went wrong under Mark Warburton, and what needs to be done to put it right.

For the Trinidadian, the example they must follow is equally clear as it is fitting in the wake of such an occasion.

“When I played at Rangers you had to lose fighting. The manager has to instil that. It was a completely different team against Hamilton - fighting and scrapping for everything when they lost the ball - and I can only speak from the outside.

“When you represent Rangers the one thing you always look for is heart, fight and that determination. Yes, you can lose a football game. That is not a problem - it’s how you lose. The five games before the new manager came in there was a lack of heart and urgency. It was like they didn’t really want to play. That is not acceptable at Rangers.

“I don’t know the communication between the manager and players so I can’t comment on that but it showed on the park. Fernando summed that up as a player. He had that character in abundance. It doesn’t matter how skilful or talented you were - without heart you won’t make it.”