Alejandro Faurlin will be sidelined for up to nine months after suffering a knee injury in the home win over Derby County at the weekend.

Faurlin was stretchered from the pitch after 77 minutes, and a scan on Monday confirmed that the 27-year-old had damaged his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

He is expected to be out for a minimum of six months. The injury is a cruel blow to the midfielder, who suffered a carbon copy injury on his right knee in January 2012.

QPR’s head of medical services, Peter Florida James, said: “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.”