QPR midfielder Amos set to return to training

QPR midfielder Luke Amos will return to training on Friday and could be in line to return to feature against Stoke next weekend.

The 25-year-old former Tottenham man missed the start of the season with a hamstring issue but played the full 90 minutes in the 3-2 win over Middlesbrough last month, only to suffer a reaction in the same area which has sidelined him for six weeks.

Rangers boss Mick Beale insisted the club’s medical team are keen not to rush Amos back given his wretched luck with injuries, but said he is looking forward to being able to call on him soon.

“He will be back in modified training tomorrow and the aim is that he will get some minutes at the back end of next week if needed,” Beale said.

“But if the team is flying and the squad stays the same then it gives me a couple of weeks after the international break to get him ready.”

Amos enjoyed a strong second half to last season after returning from a serious knee injury that kept him out for more than a year.

And Beale believes the player’s knack of arriving late in the box from midfield is something Rangers will benefit from.

“Luke in the Middlesbrough game was outstanding and we have lost that running from midfield as the other midfielders we have are of a different type,” he said.

“It was so frustrating because he never felt anything in the game and he was saying to me: ‘I’m fine, I don’t want to come off.’

“But three or four days later he didn’t feel right and had a hunch something was wrong in a different place. So mentally he has been in a rough place.

“He is a boy who takes it really personally when he gets injured. I have felt sorry for him and with this rehab we have been really careful and spent a little bit longer on it.

“I’m delighted he is returning tomorrow but I can’t rush him straight into games. I want him back for as long as possible.”

Meanwhile, defender Jake Clarke-Salter should be ready to return after the international break when the team travel to Bristol City on October 1 in what will be the first of three games in six days, with a trip to Sheffield United taking place on October 4 before Reading visit on Friday October 7.

“Jake will be very close to that but I don’t need to risk him now that I have three centre-backs and can give him a bit longer,” Beale said.

“I believe Jake is the best left-footed centre-back in the league. I know those are big words and I don’t want to put him under pressure, but that is what I am expecting from him when he comes back.

“He knows the belief I have in him.”