‘We need to be smart with him’ – Marti Cifuentes provides update on Ilias Chair’s fitness

Marti Cifuentes admits QPR will have to be patient with Ilias Chair as they reintegrate him into the team following a long-term back injury.

Chair made his first appearance of the season in Tuesday night’s 3-1 defeat to Hull City at Loftus Road, coming on as a 74th-minute substitute.

The Moroccan international was Rangers’ top-scorer last season and could be key to their hopes of a successful campaign this term following a start that has seen them win just one of their first eight league matches.

“He’s coming from a long injury,” said Cifuentes. “It’s been almost 12 weeks without competitive football, so we need to be smart with him.

“He will notice it is not that easy to come back even if he is the most confident guy in the world.

“We need to give him time to make sure he recovers his highest level but it’s very good news for us, we have been missing him because he’s a very important player.

“It’s true he is a very robust player. Since I came here [in October 2023] he’s had just one small hamstring injury.

“Now it is about helping him to regain this match fitness level. In terms of fitness, he’s good but [to get up to] the tempo of the games you just need to play those minutes.

“We are going to try to help him and then as well he needs to compete because today Koki [Saito] did well and there were some good individual performances as well that proves we have good internal competition all round.”

After missing the last two matches, Cifuentes confirmed that defender Jake Clarke-Salter will be absent for Saturday’s game against Derby due to a recurrence of the calf injury he suffered over the September international break.