Stephan could wait to include Edwards in QPR side

Julien Stephan has indicated that he might wait to include Ronnie Edwards in the QPR side.

Edwards is available to play against Stoke this weekend following his recent £4.5m move from Southampton.

That move was not finalised in time for him to be eligible to play in Sunday’s FA Cup tie against West Ham.

Edwards has trained this week but was out of the first-team picture at Southampton, so R’s head coach Stephan does not want to rush him back to action.

A decision on whether to involve the defender against Stoke will be taken after Friday’s training session.

Stephan explained: “He trained with us this week. He did two sessions.

“He didn’t train collectively in the last two weeks with Southampton, it was just individual work. He hasn’t started a game for two and a half months, so it’s a long time.

“We have a last session tomorrow to decide what we want to do. But we want to take time in order to put him in the best condition, because when you don’t train for two weeks it means something.

“We need to be careful and to be clever in order to put him on the pitch at the right moment.”

Edwards is a popular figure among fans, having impressed during a spell on loan at QPR last season.

“He’s a very good player with good ability to play with the ball, strong defensively,” said Stephan.

“It’s just about putting him in the next condition in order to be sure that physically he is ready to compete. We need to be careful and put him on the pitch at the right moment.

“But he’s a very good player, it’s a pleasure to work with him and for sure he will show his qualities very quickly.”

The fitness of Amadou Mbengue and Karamoko Dembele will also be assessed on Friday, while Harvey Vale is still nursing a back problem.

Rangers are without the injured Rumarn Burrell, Ilias Chair, Jonathan Varane, Kwame Poku and Jake Clarke-Salter.

Koki Saito joined the injured list when he limped off during the West Ham game and is expected to be out for at least a couple of weeks.