QPR manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was pleased with the performance of returning midfielder Sandro in last night’s victory over Rochdale and says he is working to help him find a new club.

The ex-Spurs man – who spent the tail end of last season on loan at West Brom – made his first appearance in a Rangers shirt since December 28 in Tuesday’s EFL Cup tie and scored both goals in a 2-1 victory at Loftus Road.

Despite a good working relationship between the Brazilian and his manager, Hasselbaink concedes that Sandro sees his future away from west London.

“Sandro played well tonight - we’ve got no problem with one another,” he said. “He’s very professional but came back a little bit later in pre-season, so we had to nurture him a little bit.

“You know he’s got experience because he’s played 17 times for the Brazil national team, so many matches for Tottenham at the highest level, and physically he is in the right shape.

“But he sees himself as a Premier League player and we need to help him to get there, or into the Champions League in another country - that’s how he sees himself and that’s what he wants. You have to respect that.

The Dutchman feels it is “important” that his side are in the third round of the League Cup for the first time since 2012, and is upbeat about the showings of some fringe and returning players.

Hasselbaink continued: “It’s important that we are in the hat - that was the main objective - but also seeing how we responded after [Rochdale’s] goal, how we played at times and our courage.

“It was nice to see Ariel [Borysiuk] finally back – he was very unfortunate with his injury. You have seen him a little bit now, he likes a tackle and he likes to be on the front foot. He plays with his heart and it’s nice to see him getting fit.

“The two young boys [Mide Shodipo and Osman Kakay] did ever so well; they are coming through the youth and holding their own. We had a few other youngsters on the bench, but we need to give them time. Mide did well and you could see Kakay was very tired and his legs were almost hanging off.

“It was unfortunate that I had to bring Nasser [El Khayati] off because normally I wouldn’t have played Mide for 90 minutes; you could see at the end he was getting cramp and I was risking him getting injured and that’s the last thing I want to do – I need all the bodies that I have at the moment. Nasser got a knee in his back and he is not somebody who gets injured very easily.”