QPR star Ilias Chair found guilty of breaking truck driver's skull with rock in 'almost fatal blow'

Queens Park Rangers star Ilias Chair has found guilty of breaking a truck driver's skull with a rock.

The Morocco international joined QPR from Belgians Lierse in 2017 and has impressed during his time in the Championship. But he was sentenced to a year in prison, with a further 12 months suspended, in his home town of Antwerp on Friday morning (February 23).

The court also ordered Chair, 26, to pay his victim £13,400 compensation for his injuries. It comes as a huge blow to QPR, who currently find themselves amidst a relegation battle to League One.

Chair, his brother Jaber and some friends got into an argument with a trucker in Bazeilles, northern France, in the summer of 2020, the court heard. They, along with the driver, named as Niels T, had been waiting to catch a bus back to Belgium following a kayaking trip.

Antwerp's public prosecutor told a hearing in January: "According to many people involved, Ilias Chair lashed out at Niels T with a stone and knocked him unconscious.

"The consequences were dramatic for Niels T. He suffered a severe skull fracture, two centimetres long, and was taken to hospital at Reims in critical condition.

"Afterwards he had to recover for a long time in a Belgian hospital, and could not do his job as a lorry driver for a long time. The blow was almost fatal for him, and he still feels the after-effects."

QPR have since issued a statement, which read: "The club are, and have been, in regular contact with Ilias Chair’s legal team regarding a charge of assault which has been made against him.

"The legal proceeding is yet to reach its conclusion. As such, the club will be making no further comment at this stage."

Chair, who was born in Antwerp, has 12 caps for Morocco and represented the African nation as they made the World Cup semi-finals in 2022. His brother, Jaber, received a six-month suspended jail term as well as a £700 fine for his role in the attack.

Niels T's lawyer commented: "My client almost lost his life, and it took surgeons to save him. He was unable to work for a long time, and still suffers adverse reactions every day to having been hit with a rock."