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

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.

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.

“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.