Captain Martin Rowlands has refused to set a specific date for his comeback from a knee injury suffered in January but says he hopes to be back leading the side around the start of the 2009/10 season.

Rowlands damaged his knee ligaments in a seemingly innocuous incident early on in the 2-0 win at Derby in January. The skipper was initially given a nine month prognosis which means he should be returning by the end of August or the start of September. Although he is pleased with his recovery so far, Rowlands told the club's official website that he is reluctant to set a specific return date just yet.



Rowlands said: “The knee is getting better all the time. It's been three months or so now since I picked up the injury, but I'm making progress all the time. I'm back doing some jogging and some light ball work and that's great. It's great to be out of the gym. I'm hopeful I'll be back somewhere around the start of the season. I'm not going to put a date on it, just in case I suffer any setbacks, but hopefully I should be back somewhere near the start of the new campaign."



Another member of the R's first team squad talking today is Damien Delaney. The Irish defender has been linked with a move away from Loftus Road by the local media recently but made no mention of that as the official website tagged comments from him onto the Rowlands update.




Delaney said: “It's easy to make excuses for this season, but the fact is we've been without a lot of our key players for large parts of the season. You've got to remember that Patrick Agyemang has been out; Martin Rowlands has been out; Akos Buzsaky has been out; and Rowan Vine has been out. Agyemang was scoring for fun last season; Rowly got his fair share; Akos was free-scoring as well; and Viney was bagging goals aplenty. If you look at that bunch, that's nearly 40 odds goals that have been taken out of the team, by not having them available. It's been a disappointing campaign, but if we're all fully fit, we can expect a marked improvement next season."



In former R’s news as pointed out by QPR Report Ron Springett may be in line to get a World Cup winners medal after being a non-playing member of the 1966 England squad. As it stands only the players that played in the final have a winners medal however FIFA as now decided to bring things into line with present arrangements and issue 14 additional medals to the reserve players in the squad.



Elsewhere in the Championship the play off final line up as now been confirmed. Sheffield United won a tense, physical battle against Preston on Monday night while Burnley bagged two fabulous goals against Reading this evening to join The Blades at Wembley. Burnley have been outstanding this season, in my opinion the best side to visit Loftus Road, and thoroughly deserve their place in the final. They have beaten Sheff Utd twice already this season, including a televised game at Turf Moor last month where United seemed more bothered with physically intimidating Burnley than playing them at football. Speculation is mounting that tonight’s defeat could be the last Reading match for manager Steve Coppell.



Elsewhere the bad news keeps coming for Cardiff who posted another big loss today, £1m – although that hasn’t stopped them signing goalkeeper David Marshall from relegated Norwich. Southampton have warned Swansea they won’t allow Nathan Dyer to leave cheaply this summer – Dyer spent the second half of this season on loan at Swansea after Southampton turned down a £1.2m bid from Sheff Utd in January. And here’s a familiar tale – Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston as reacted angrily to rumours defender Shaun Barker is set to join Derby for £400k accusing The Rams of trying to unsettle the player. Settle down Derby fans, you’re in for a long summer.



Finally respect and sympathy to the family and friends of Joe Miller, a Wolves fan who was taken ill at our game at Molineux in April, who sadly died this week. Miller followed Wolves from his home in Lincolnshire.

Photo: Action Images

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