QPR seek to delay departures of AFCON trio

QPR will seek permission for Ilias Chair, Seny Dieng and Osman Kakay to remain with the squad until after their match against promotion rivals Bournemouth on December 27.

Chair, Dieng and Kakay are all set to be included in the Morocco, Senegal and Sierra Leone squads respectively ahead of the tournament which kicks off on in Cameroon on January 9, with the final taking place on February 6.

Clubs are still waiting on official final confirmations from Fifa of when they will have to release players to their national squads for pre-tournament training camps.

Early indications are it will be on Boxing Day, which would severely affect Rangers for their encounter with the Cherries, which has been moved for television purposes.

Mark Warburton has already indicated he wants to bring in reinforcements during the January transfer window to help keep alive his side’s promotion push, but said the club will look for help from the three national federations to allow them to keep the players for an extra 24 hours.

With Morocco and Senegal not kicking off their tournaments until January 10 and Sierra Leone facing reigning champions Algeria on January 11, the Rangers boss is hopeful the good relations the club have fostered with the three national federations will work in their favour.

“From what I understand, the directive from the world governing body is that you have to have individual phone calls and arrangements and try and see what you can do,” he said.

“All we can do is speak to the respective associations and try and work with them.

“But moving the game from the 26th to the 27th can potentially be very damaging for us and we have to do what we can to resolve that issue.

“We have to work with them. At the end of the day people talk about associations and countries but their managers and coaches have to win games and are judged by the games they win, and I get that.”

Should permission be refused for the players to stay for the Bournemouth match, it could mean the trio miss potentially as many as nine games, including a possible FA Cup fourth-round tie should Rangers get past Rotherham.

Matches they would sit out include Bristol City on December 30 and January’s Championship fixtures against Birmingham, West Brom, Coventry and Reading and possibly the February 5 fixture at Millwall.

Any early return to the club could also be affected by the prospect of updated quarantine regulations, with two of the six hosting cities currently on the UK government’s amber travel list.

“We fully understand it is a two-way arrangement,” Warburton said,

“We have always been very good with the associations giving our players every opportunity to impress at international level so I hope the fairness we have demonstrated over the last few months will be reciprocated.”