'It's difficult' - QPR star suffers recurring injury and will miss Derby County clash

QPR will be without star defender Jake Clarke-Salter for the trip to Derby County after the 27-year-old was absent from the R's squad once again to face Hull City on Tuesday night.

The former Chelsea man is a mainstay in Marti Cifuentes' starting XI but has now been absent from two Championship outings in a row, having not made the squad for the 2-0 defeat against Blackburn Rovers either. Jimmy Dunne returned to centre-back against the Tigers midweek, with Hevertton Santos deployed at full-back, but Clarke-Salter was missed as QPR fell to a 3-1 home defeat.

Clarke-Salter suffers soleus injury

The defender had also missed out on the trip to Sheffield Wednesday last month, having made 33 Championship appearances last term. Speaking in his post-match press conference at Loftus Road on Tuesday, Cifuentes said: "He picked up an injury in the same zone and won't be available against Derby County. That's my hope [he returns after the international break]. This soleus muscle is always a bit difficult. Unfortunately, it's exactly the same zone, the same injury."

The QPR head coach hopes that Clarke-Salter will be fit again to face Portsmouth later this month but was full of caution and stopped well short of promising that. After the visit of Pompey, the R's face Coventry City and Burnley before the end of October.

Ilias Chair and Morgan Fox return to fitness

Cifuentes does at least have centre-back Morgan Fox fit again, the 31-year-old named in the matchday squad against Hull City for the first time this season, alongside Ilias Chair.

Cifuentes said: "He [Chair] is coming from a long injury of course, it's been almost 12 weeks without competitive football. We need to be smart with him. He's the most confident guy in the world but we need to give him time to recover to the highest level. It's very good news because we've missed him, he's an important player. It's very great news that him and Fox are back."