Chris Wilder has made his feelings clear on Sheffield United, QPR decision this January - it makes total sense | OneFootball

Rhys Norrington-Davies is expected to last the season at Loftus Road

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has handed supporters of Queens Park Rangers a major boost by outlining his stance on a potential recall for Rhys Norrington-Davies to Bramall Lane at the turn of the year.

Plenty of change is expected to take place at the Blades by the time the winter transfer window comes around, with Wilder looking to firmly stamp his authority on the Steel City outfit and his boyhood club for the third time after taking over from Ruben Selles in September after a well-documented disastrous chain of events and start to the Championship campaign.

During what proved to be the aforementioned Spaniard's first and only transfer window in charge of the South Yorkshire side, Selles oversaw a major squad overhaul within three months of United falling short of an immediate return to the Premier League after losing to Sunderland in the play-off final in what was the final game of Wilder's second spell in charge.

This saw COH Sports adopt an AI-heavy transfer strategy when it came to incomings, with the vast majority of signings which offered any kind of second tier experience being recruited increasingly close to the transfer deadline on September 1st.

Many of those came in defence too, which only decreased Norrington-Davies' chances of sampling regular football throughout the campaign, which is exactly what has occurred at Loftus Road under Julien Stephan, with Rangers recently emerging as potential play-off material after a contrasting two-month period to that of the Welsh international's parent club.

Yet, despite there being plenty of talk regarding Wilder's upcoming plans, the 26-year-old is expected to last the course of the season in W12 to continue sourcing regular minutes.

Chris Wilder makes honest Rhys Norrington-Davies, QPR call - it makes sense for all parties

Norrington-Davies has been on the Blades' books since 2017, initially becoming an academy graduate in South Yorkshire before making his way into the first-team fold during Wilder's historic first spell in charge, during which the club rose from League One and into the Premier League within a three-year period.

Since then, though, the 14-time Welsh international has only made 66 appearances for United under Wilder, Slavisa Jokanovic, Paul Heckingbottom and Selles, with the latter starting Norrington-Davies in the 4-1 defeat to Bristol City on the opening day of the season.

With the likes of Ben Godfrey, Nils Zatterstrom and later, Ben Mee, joining Tyler Bindon as temporary or permanent additions to the squad, a temporary departure to West London for the versatile Norrington-Davies was sanctioned on August 25th.

Since then, the Riyadh-born man has started seven encounters at left-back for the Hoops despite suffering a recent minor injury, and he is expected to not be a part of a major Bramall Lane reshuffle which is set to follow the revelation of a filed "document" from Wilder to the Blades hierarchy prior to the recent international break.

"No. He needs to play, I think everybody knew that for quite a while. He's had some unfortunate injuries over the past 2.5 years and everybody wants to play," Wilder said when asked about the possibility of a recall.

"It's a good club he's joined and we have a loans manager who goes out and watches them - whether it's Billy Blacker or Rhys, we have have reports and we watch them regularly and see how they're going on.

"We have to look after number one first and foremost but we'll see how it goes over the next 8 weeks. He's not doing himself any harm at all, playing well at a good club that's going well in the Championship," Wilder added.

Rhys Norrington-Davies needs to prioritise regular minutes over bit-part Sheffield United role

As Wilder alluded to, it is imperative for Norrington-Davies to prioritise earning regular minutes after a mixed period within his individual career, albeit it is for a divisional rival clearly going relatively strong in the opening weeks of the season.

However, it was the 58-year-old who oversaw the defender's most recent contract extension in the Steel City, which expires in the summer of 2027 at present, meaning that the current campaign will undoubtedly be pivotal when determining his future whereabouts, be it at Bramall Lane, Loftus Road or elsewhere.

That won't be at the forefront of his mind though, with the initial focus being on helping QPR return to winning ways against Swansea City after a frustrating 2-1 home defeat to Millwall on Saturday.