Stephan upbeat as Lamptey nears QPR return before September break | OneFootball

“He is in a good position. He will not be available this week, but perhaps quickly after. For sure, before the September international break,” said QPR head coach Julien Stephan, speaking ahead of the Championship opener at Portsmouth to Hounslow Herald.

Lamptey, 25, joined Rangers last month on a free and is still recovering from an ACL injury sustained in September last year. He had made only two substitute outings for Fiorentina before the season-ending setback, which also kept him out of Ghana’s World Cup squad.

Stephan praised the defender’s character and appetite to play. “The human is very humble, very ambitious, the desire to play football again.”

On roles, Stephan said, “He can play both sides.” “He is a modern and dynamic fullback, good with the ball, powerful.”

Lamptey made his Premier League debut against Arsenal in 2019, featured 11 times in 2019/20, then moved to Brighton and played over 120 games before switching to Serie A last summer.

Stephan said Jonathan Varane, Paul Smyth and Rumarn Burrell “had a shock” after last week’s Carabao Cup defeat to Millwall, but are available this weekend. Justin Obikwu has resumed training.

Injuries hampered QPR throughout Stephan’s first season, which ended in 15th, but he says the squad are in better physical shape after a fitness-focused pre-season.

Source: Hounslow Herald

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