The worst fears of QPR supporters everywhere were confirmed today when the results of Ale Faurlin’s scan revealed he has indeed ruptured his anterior cruciate ligaments all over again.

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Faurlin collapsed ten minutes from the end of Saturday’s home win against Derby County in obvious distress and after a brave attempt to walk from the field eventually had to be stretchered off with his hands over his face. The Argentinean has only recently returned to form after rupturing ligaments in his left knee in January 2012 and has now suffered exactly the same injury on his right side.

QPR say he will be out for between six to nine months which rules him out for the rest of the 2013/14 season and, crucially, the rest of his contract at Loftus Road. Faurlin had recently spoken of his desire to stay in West London, where his young son is settled in school, and at QPR where he has built an affinity with the club and its supporters since he arrived from Racing in Argentina in 2009.

QPR’s head of medical services, Peter Florida James, told the club’s official website:: “It's a really nasty cruciate injury. We’re all desperately disappointed for Ali, but he is a great professional and I'm sure he'll work just as hard at recovering from this injury as he did from his previous ACL rupture.”

The injury further reduces QPR’s options in the centre of the park with Little Tom Carroll back at Spurs receiving treatment on a foot injury and Niko Kranjcar struggling with a hamstring injury. It could yet further Rangers’ quest to bring former West Ham and Chelsea midfielder Yossi Benayoun to the club but Harry Redknapp told Israel’s Sports Channel 5 that any move would be dependent on the free agent coming in and proving his fitness first.

Redknapp said: “I really like Yossi, he’s an excellent player. At the moment we haven’t signed him because he hasn’t played for a long time, so we’d need to check out his fitness. It would help me decide if he came here and trained with us for a couple of days.”

Redknapp remains upbeat about his side’s chances. The R’s have a point more than at this stage of their 2010/11 promotion campaign despite a poor week on the road that yielded just two points from games at Millwall, Burnley and Wigan. The R’s boss was impressed with the way his team bounced back against Derby in W12 on Saturday.

He told the club’s official website: “We were unlucky to come in 1-1 at half-time, I felt there was a foul for their goal, but I thought if we could go again in the second half we would win the game, and that’s what we did. I’ve been delighted with us. Every week we put a great effort in. We’ve had three games in the last week and the players have been excellent.

“I don’t think we’ve been through a blip. We played Burnley away who are top of the league and then we went to Wigan who are an excellent team and won the FA Cup last year. We played well there and I thought we were the better side on the night. We’ve come back home against a tough Derby side today and deserved the win. It was a good all-round performance, we were excellent all over the park.

“I like the look of us. We’re playing well and the atmosphere around the place is just fantastic. It’s a different football club now. We’ve got good boys here who want to do well. When you’ve got that, you’ve got a chance.”

Matt Phillips took plaudits for his performance against the Rams, with an assist for the first goal and a shot against the bar in the second half. The winger has struggled with an elbow injury since arriving from Blackpool in the summer transfer window but gave glimpses of his potential on Saturday a day after being named in the Scotland squad for their forthcoming friendlies with the USA and Norway. Phillips is hoping to emulate Andros Townsend’s meteoric rise following his successful loan stint on the QPR wing last term.

Phillips said: “Andros did very well here last season and I know him from previously in my career. He is a great player who is now doing well in the Premier League, and I would love to do the same thing as him. That is where we are all fighting to get back to, and that is important to me. First and foremost, I need to get back up to speed, but then we want to be promoted.

“It’s been frustrating. I came in after missing pre-season and was six, seven or eight games behind everyone else. That’s always going to be hard. But hopefully I can now really show what I’m about in the games to come as I get fitter, stronger and sharper. I want to produce and score goals. Charlie’s up there and is a natural finisher, so if I can assist him and score goals myself, I think the side will do well.”

The result followed Friday’s news that QPR fan and former Brentford manager Wally Downes is joining the club’s coaching staff on a short term deal. Downes, a lifelong QPR supporter, was most recently assistant to Sam Allardyce at West Ham.

In other news, Tottenham goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes has accused Redknapp of having a vendetta against South American players and urged Brazilian goalkeeper Julio Cesar to leave Loftus Road as soon as possible to save his chances of playing in the World Cup at the end of the year. Cesar is well out of the picture at Rangers after the club’s attempts to shift his salary from the book during the summer floundered over the wage demands he made of interested clubs.

Gomes told ESPN in Brazil: "Julio has to work with someone who is almost impossible to have his mind changed. I worked with him at Tottenham, and I had my share of difficulties too. He doesn't like South Americans much, Brazilians mainly. He doesn't care if you're on Seleção’s first eleven or not. Julio will keep having problems if he continues at QPR. If he gets any chance to leave, he should do so, in order to get playing time."

Finally the QPR Under 18s registered a convincing 4-2 home win against Crystal Palace at the weekend. Striker Reece Grego-Cox scored twice and Aaron Mitchell and Cole Kpekawa also registered as the R’s raced into a 4-0 half time lead before easing off the gas and conceding a couple of goals.

QPR: Smith, Furlong, Kakay, Comley, Wise (Beckles 66), Kpekawa (Pattie 45), Komodikis, Butler, Grego-Cox, Mitchell, Shodipo (Young 80).

Goals: Grego-Cox 17, 42, Kpekawa 36, Mitchell 27

Loan Watch

He follows fellow youth team graduate Frankie Sutherland out of the door following his move to League One leaders Leyton Orient last week. Sutherland was an unused sub for the O’s as they continued their flying start to the season with a 3-1 win at Peterborough on Saturday and told West London Sport he knows this spell is crucial to his dream of making a breakthrough at Rangers — a club he joined as en eight-year-old.

He said: “The dream is to play in the first team for QPR — that’s my aim. Hopefully I’ll be able to break through eventually. If I can go out and get as many games as I can under my belt, then I can come back and put my name into the mix for the first team. Obviously they’ve had a great start to the season. I just want to play as much as I can — hopefully I’ll be able to do well there. It would be nice to be playing regularly and see the loan extended but it’s hard to tell at the minute. I know it’s down to me and being able to impress the manager down there.”

Mixed results for QPR’s various high-earning senior loaned players over the weekend. Loic Remy brought a cheer to the Crown and Sceptre on Saturday lunchtime with the second goal in Newcastle’s surprise 2-0 home win against Chelsea. Stephane Mbia did likewise in Wigan on Wednesday night, for different reasons, as he was sent off in Sevilla’s farcical 7-3 defeat by Real Madrid in La Liga. Adel Taarabt was a second half sub for Fulham as they lost 3-1 at home to Manchester United.

Yun Suk-Young played 90 minutes for Doncaster as they lost 3-1 to Brighton in the Championship and Shaun Derry completed 57 minutes for Millwall as they held leaders Burnley to a 2-2 draw — former R Danny Shittu scored one of the Lions’ goals.

Michael Harriman completed 90 minutes for Peter Taylor’s Gillingham side in a 1-0 win against Carlisle in League One at the weekend. Michael Doughty’s Stevenage side lost 2-0 to Wolves — he was replaced in the last minute by fellow Rangers loanee Bruno Andrade.

Former R’s

Lee Camp made his debut for Bournemouth on Saturday but couldn’t prevent the Cherries crashing to a 2-0 home defeat against struggling Bolton. Camp has joined on a one month loan deal from West Brom, who he joined in the summer to cover England international Ben Foster.

Championship Shorts

- Blackburn have posted an annual pre-tax loss of £36.5m following their relegation from the Premier League in 2012 - compared with the £4.3m profit made a year earlier.Their accounts reveal a £27.3m drop in turnover and a 136.1% wages-to-turnover ratio for the year ending June 2013.They also show the club's net debt has risen from £24.5m to £54.5m.

- Sheffield Wednesday have signed Sunderland striker Connor Wickham on loan until January. The 20-year-old England Under-21 international scored one goal in six appearances during a loan spell at Hillsborough last season.

- Reading captain Sean Morrison has criticised the way his side performed in Saturday's 5-2 defeat by Sheffield Wednesday. It was Wednesday's first victory of the season and Morrison told the BBC: "It wasn't good enough and we are going to put it right for the fans who travelled up because we owe them one.”

- Millwall have have taken Middlesbrough defender Justin Hoyte on trial with a view to agreeing an emergency loan deal. The Arsenal youth product has only made four appearances for Boro this season, the last coming in a 4-1 win over Yeovil at the start of October.

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Photo: Action Images

TacticalR added 10:22 - Nov 5 Too depressing for words.
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GloryHunter added 11:46 - Nov 5 Is it any consolation that it wasn't the same knee again? I would have thought doing the same knee twice would defintely mean career over.
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MTG added 16:16 - Nov 5 I'm gutted for Faurlin he seemed to be getting back to his best. I still wonder why Redknapp still won't even consider putting Samba Diakite back in the first team squad.
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RonisRs added 17:03 - Nov 5 I agree, there may be hope for him, given it is his other knee. I almost forgot about SD, he has had his moments, and think defensivley, he would work, provided he sorts out his discipline. if i recall it was against Reading he got a second yellow.
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cranieboy added 17:24 - Nov 5 I too had forgotten we have Diakite, he's surely good enough if he can get his head right. Gutted for Faurlin and for us as a team, a player I really like and enjoy watching. I hope we see him in a Rangers shirt again, though I fear if we do go up again we may not.
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tsbains64 added 19:10 - Nov 5 Sad for Ale-but he is a star and will come back stronger. Hope QPR can offer him somthing-not sure what happens in these circumstances when a contract ends when the player is injured. Forgotten about Samba-hope he gets a run in the team-did pretty well last time out-not sure his style of play will fit in with Harrys revolutiuon
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Burnleyhoop added 19:29 - Nov 5 The boy deserved better. Just when he was re-establishing himself in the middle of the park. The "mad Malian" must surely be more interesting to watch than Jenas and Henry boring us to death? Despite our current efficiency, I miss the flair of Warnock's collection of misfits.
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