Ilias Chair featured in Queens Park Rangers’ starting XI against Rotherham United only a day after he was sentenced to prison.
The 26-year-old has been charged for an assault on a truck driver and sentenced to a 12 months in jail with an extra 12 months suspended.
Chair, whose brother Jaber has also been charged and sentenced, has been ordered to pay the victim £13,400 in compensation for his injuries, too.
Each have been accused of assaulting the truck driver with a rock that left the victim, named Niels T in court, with a fractured skull.
The midfielder is appealing and QPR released an announcement on Friday to say they’re in ‘regular contact’ together with his legal team.
Despite the situation, Hoops boss Marti Cifuentes named him within the starting XI for the visit of Rotherham on Saturday afternoon.
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A court in Antwerp, Belgium heard that Chair, along together with his brother and his friends, were involved in an altercation with the driving force in Bazeilles, France in 2020.
The incident saw Niels T lose consciousness and he was taken to hospital in critical condition for treatment on his fractured skull.
His lawyer said: “My client almost lost his life, and it took surgeons to save lots of him.
“He was unable to work for a very long time, and still suffers antagonistic reactions on daily basis to having been hit with a rock.”
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Chair’s start is his thirty first within the Championship this season, with the Moroccan international missing just two games of the campaign.
He has scored 4 goals and assisted one other five for the club as they fight to avoid relegation to League One.
The 26-year-old signed for QPR in 2017 and has now made 224 appearances for the club since then.
Chair has netted on 32 occasions and assisted one other 36 goals during his spell at Loftus Road.
