Ilais Chair - midfielder who inspired QPR win over Preston North End at Deepdale is jailed for 12 months

Preston North End rivals QPR have seen star player Ilais Chair sent to prison for 12 months.

The 26-year-old, who inspired the Hoops to a 2-0 win against PNE at Deepdale back in December, has been imprisoned after fracturing a truck driver’s skull with a rock during a kayaking trip to France in 2020.

The Morocco international will serve his sentence in Belgium. He has also been handed a 12-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay the victim £13,000 in damages.

Chair has made 31 appearances for QPR this season, scoring five goals and registering four assists. Two of those assists came against the Lilywhites in December, when he came off the bench at half-time to set up Paul Smith (55 minutes) and Chris Willock (87) to hand the visitors a 2-0 win. The result handed Ryan Lowe’s side a third successive defeat, which saw the team slip to eighth in the table.

Preston travel to Loftus Road for the return fixture on April 20, which will be the Lilywhites’ penultimate away game of the season. Manager Marti Cifuentes will be unable to call upon Chair for that game or the Championship run-in, with the West London-based west 22nd in the table and battling for safety.