Watford have been dealt an injury setback during the international break, with Will Hughes once again unavailable for Saturday’s game with Queens Park Rangers.

Head coach Vladimir Ivic had hoped the midfielder would be ready to feature in his starting lineup by now, but said that was not the case.

While it is hoped that it is simply a short delay to Hughes’s progress, it is something Ivic is still waiting for more information on before he can make a true judgement on the extent of the issue.

“Hughes is out,” said the head coach. “[He didn’t train] last week, because of some problem that he has. We are waiting for him in the next days to come back to be with us.

“I hope it will just be one week, but I cannot tell you in this moment something more because I’m waiting for more information from our medical team, and they didn’t tell me until now exactly when he will be with us.”

Another player who is also not available for the game at Loftus Road is striker Stipe Perica, who is still recovering from an arm injury sustained in the 1-1 draw with Bournemouth, but Ivic hopes he will be available again before too long.

“We are waiting for Perica to come back,” he said. “He’s a guy who played, until now, two games and scored one goal.

Watford Observer:

“It was unlucky in this game against Bournemouth because it happened, this injury, and I hope that he will be with us in the next two or three days to work normally with the team.”

There was some good news for Ivic over the international break however, with Adam Masina apparently ahead of schedule with his recovery.

Initially the left back had not been expected to return until the end of January, or possibly later, but the head coach is now expecting him to return to training in the next couple of weeks.

While Ivic was remaining cautious regarding Masina and said it was unlikely that he would be available to play any time soon, he still regards it as a positive sign, with Ken Sema currently his only naturally left-sided player.

"The information what I have from yesterday is that he will be with us in the next two weeks," said Ivic.

Watford Observer:

"I believe that maybe at the beginning of December he will start to work with the team. After four months, you need some periods, two or three weeks, it depends on him, to adapt to work with the team and after to follow his body, his physicality, and his technique and tactics, what he needs to do to be able to play. All of us are waiting for him. We know that he's an important player for us.

"Nobody can expect that he will start to play in two weeks. It's not possible he needs to have some period of adaptation to work with the team after this long period when you stay at out. And then we will decide when we will start to use him."