Mark Warburton has insisted that QPR will not hesitate to recall Macauley Bonne from Ipswich if they need to.
It comes after Bonne made it abundantly clear he does not want to return to the west London club in January.
Rangers have an option to recall the 26-year-old from his season-long loan at Portman Road.
“I don’t want them to recall me,” Bonne recently told the East Anglian Daily Times.
“I don’t want to go back and be third or fourth choice, coming on for a few minutes, when I’m thriving here.
“I was sitting on the bench, gaining weight eating jaffa cakes, and I can’t do that.
“I’ve found my sharpness, I’m on a roll and if they put a pause on that I’ll be angry.”
In response, Warburton has told West London Sport: “I’m trying to find the jaffa cakes.
“I’ve never seen them since I’ve been here. If they are around then I’d like to get them for the coaches’ office.”
He added: “On a serious note, you can interview players at emotional times.
“I would hope that, in this instance, the player was interviewed maybe in an emotional time after the final whistle etc. You’ve got to be careful what you say.
“He’s contracted to QPR, we paid good money for him and pay his wages. I’m sure Macauley would be very conscious of that fact.”
The fact Warburton has recently been without strikers Lyndon Dykes and Andre Gray no doubt plays a part in the Rangers manager’s thinking.
Both players missed last Friday’s win against Luton and a similar situation in January could well lead to Bonne being recalled.
Warburton explained: “Right now we’ve had some injuries to our strikers. If it’s the right thing to call Macauley back then absolutely we will do. If it’s not the right time then we won’t.
“We don’t want to unsettle a player on loan, but QPR pay his wages and he’s contracted to QPR, so we’ll do what’s right for QPR – and of course what’s right for Macauley as a player.
“If the loan is working well and we don’t need to bring him back then we won’t bring him back.
“However, on Friday night we only had one striker available. If the situation is such then we’ll act in the best interests of QPR.”