The African Cup of Nations kicks off on January 9th and will last for just under a month, with players from right across the English Football League Pyramid set to take part.
From the top of the Premier League to the lower ends of League Two, players are set to put their domestic seasons on ice to take part in their respective nations’ AFCON 2022 campaign and QPR are no different.
Mark Warburton’s side have the chance to move up into 3rd-place of the Championship table with a win over Derby County tonight.
READ: QPR team news and predicted XI to face Derby County
Its been a stellar season for the R’s so far but come the New Year, they’ll be dealt something of a blow with both Ilias Chair (Morocco), Seny Dieng (Senegal) and Osman Kakay (Sierra Leone) set to jet off for AFCON.
Chair, 24, has become a key player for QPR in the past few seasons and he’s now a key player for his national side.
He’s become a regular in the Morocco side. Chair has featured five times in his nation’s 2022 World Cup qualification campaign, scoring once.
His absence will be a huge miss for QPR and so too will the absence of Dieng in goal.
The 27-year-old is set to play no.2 to Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy for Senegal, having made one appearance in his nation’s AFCON qualification campaign.
Elsewhere, Kakay is expected to be called up for Sierra Leone. The right-back has a handful of caps for his nation and was last in action for them during this month’s international break.
For QPR then, they’ll be dealt a big blow wen AFCON rolls around and it could yet hamper their season. But a recent report from West London Sport suggests that the R’s could dip into the transfer market to mitigate the losses of AFCON.
Up next for QPR is a Championship clash v Derby County later this evening.
