Sunderland vs QPR team news: Ex-Black Cats flop available to Marti Cifuentes after injury fears

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QPR's team to face Sunderland on Saturday could include a familiar face...

Jake Clarke-Salter will be available to face former club Sunderland, QPR boss Marti Cifuentes has confirmed.

The centreback Black Cats in the second half of the disastrous 2017-18 campaign as the Wearsiders looked to stave off relegation from the Championship.

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And in what was ultimately an unsuccessful battle against the drop, Clarke-Salter failed to deliver the impact he desired – and was sent off twice in just 11 appearances on Wearside.

Clarke-Salter has now found a new home at Championship club QPR following several EFL loans over the years and started the club's most two recent games against West Brom and Middlesbrough.

The 26-year-old former Chelsea and Birmingham City defender was replaced by Morgan Fox late in the West Brom game with some QPR fans speculating about a potential injury. However, Clarke-Salter was back in the team to face Middlesbrough last weekend.

After the West Brom game, QPR boss Cifuentes explained: “He’s totally OK. It was a tactical substitution. We felt that Foxy could help us perhaps in the only situation we thought West Brom could win the game, set pieces.

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“We wanted to just close with three men and Foxy is very good in that ‘side-back’ – not centre-back and not full-back – position. It’s very natural for him.

“So that’s why we decided to put him on and take Jake out, with Chrissy (Willock) in a type of left wing-back position.”

Sunderland face QPR at the Stadium of Light this coming Saturday with the Black Cats on a six-game losing run in the Championship.

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