QPR head coach Chris Ramsey refused to confirm Rob Green will march straight back into the team against Hull City - but it would be a brave fan who bet against.
The England keeper sat out the 2-2 draw with Blackburn on Wednesday due to a one-game suspension, and somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Ramsey admitted he was back in ‘contention if he trained hard.’
Definitely missing are midfielders Sandro, Leroy Fer, defenders Yun Suk-young and Armand Traore, while the coach believes new boys Daniel Tozser and Gabriele Angella are slowly getting up to speed.
“They’re game rusty because they haven’t been playing, and it showed against Blackburn, but they’ll be good for us,” Ramsey said.
“Yun’s a couple of weeks away. Armand tweaked his calf, so we left him out as a precautionary measure. The last thing we need to do is move him forward too quickly where he’s not ready for the rest of the season.”
Ramsey was in charge for only the third time when Rs went to Hull last season in February, and suffered a last-minute 2-1 defeat.
Here is a reminder.
It made little difference as both sides suffered the drop, but Ramsey reckoned Tigers have been fortunate to hang on to the majority of their Premier League squad.
“With Hull they’ve kept a lot of players so maybe they’ll play similar to the way they did last season,” he added. “The teams who have kept players will be difficult to beat.
“They’ve made a slow start, but so have we. We would have liked two more points on the board by now.”
For all that Tigers boss Steve Bruce is still fearful of the threat posed by a pair of Rs hot-shots.
He said: "When you look at the team they’ve held on to some big players like Matt Phillips and Charlie Austin. He’s a striker that got 19 goals in the Premier League and he’s already got five this season. We’ll have to stop him that’s for sure.
"They’ve still got a sprinkling of people that have played in the Premier League and they’ve bought in some decent players like Chery and Luongo.
"It’s been a major turnaround for them, a bit like ourselves, but they’ve started pretty well. It’ll be a difficult game."
