Rob Green opens up on QPR exile: 'I'm desperate to play...this is hurting me'

Rob Green no longer appears to exist. He is not named when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink lists his roster of goalkeepers at Queens Park Rangers during media interviews, not involved when the first-team squad trains, nowhere to be seen on matchdays.

He remains a paid employee at Loftus Road, and comfortably the best goalkeeper at the club. He was in Roy Hodgson's England squad during the last European Championship qualification campaign, after all.

But when Saturday comes he is excluded, the victim of a Championship club that has decided to leave him out purely on the grounds of cost.

QPR goalkeeper Rob Green has not played for the club since the match against Hull City on January 1 

The veteran England stopper is being purposefully left out of the team purely on the grounds of cost 

Green will earn a contract extension if he reaches 30 league appearances for the London club this term

Green stands in the goalmouth at Loftus Road in what could prove to be his last game of the season

It is a tale of modern football, and a concern Green expressed when he spoke to his employers last summer. 

If he reached 30 appearances this season they would have to extend the 36-year-old's contract beyond June but QPR, with ambitions to make a swift return to the Premier League, insisted they wanted him to stay.

However, when it became apparent before Christmas that they were losing too much ground in the promotion race, QPR informed Green that his 25th appearance of the campaign — on January 1 — would be his last for a club he joined on a free transfer and helped win promotion.

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'When I sat down with them in the summer I said this is the one position I didn't want to find myself in and here we are,' says Green, speaking to Sportsmail for the first time about his predicament.

'It is frustrating, to put it mildly. Leaving in the summer was something that could have happened. I discussed it at length with (director of football) Les Ferdinand.

'It was something that could happen and financially it would have helped the club. I was happy to walk away. But the owners made a call that they wanted me to stay. They knew I had this clause but they had the desire to get back into the Premier League.'

Green is now left to count down the days until he can leave Loftus Road and find a new club to play for

The former Norwich City and West Ham goalkeeper has been through a turbulent time at QPR

 Green has grown frustrated with his lack of game-time at QPR and is keen to find a new team soon

It has been a chaotic few years since Green was signed by Mark Hughes in June 2012. He has seen three more managers arrive and six caretaker bosses.

'I was looking at a photograph of our squad celebrating after winning the play-off final in 2014,' he says. 'In terms of players contracted for next season there's only Matt Phillips left. It's incredible, really.

'Neil Warnock became the manager towards the end of last year and on his first day he pulled me to one side and said, "You do realise you won't make that 30 games?" I thought, "I've been told otherwise but I can hazard a guess as to why that might now be the case". I wasn't naive.

'Then Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink spoke to me soon after he arrived. He said, "Look, it's nothing personal but because of budgets and things you're not going to make the 30 games".

'I played one more game on New Year's Day then missed a couple through illness, and by then Alex Smithies was fit and available. I guess they figured they might as well make the change then.'

The stopper was close to leaving QPR, but moves to West Ham and Crystal Palace collapsed

England's qualifying campaign for Euro 2016 saw Green as part of the squad alongside Joe Hart

Green has made the most of his free-time by attending rugby matches but is desperate to play football

Perhaps the main source of frustration is how close he came to leaving last summer and in January. Some have suggested moves to West Ham and Crystal Palace fell through because of his wage demands. Green insists that was not the case, having agreed terms with both clubs and even passing a medical at Upton Park.

The truth is QPR's owners had an issue with selling to West Ham, while things did not quite fall into place in terms of squad numbers at Palace. 'The newspaper reports weren't far off the mark,' he says. 'I was pretty close to leaving.'

Green can sense that people at the club are embarrassed. Supremely fit and by no means past his best, Green does not participate in first-team training beyond the occasional session with the other goalkeepers. He says he has not heard from the club's owners, their one act of generosity the fact that he is not obliged to attend matches.

'I'm not massively angry,' says Green. 'I'm not going into training wanting to kill people. 

After 20 years in professional football you have seen it all, so it never really surprises you.

'But it's the first time in my life I'm sat around on a Saturday afternoon not doing anything. I didn't go into football to earn money. It was because I liked playing football. 

It took me six weeks to get my head around it.

QPR's squad is almost unrecognisable from the one that Green won promotion with in May 2014

 Green, who has 12 senior caps for England, represented his country at the 2010 FIFA World Cup 

'I can look at the more positive aspects now, like being able go to the kids' football. 

And I've been to watch a bit of rugby. Someone tweeted saying they were sure they'd seen Rob Green at Esher Rugby Club but then saying it couldn't have been me because QPR were playing.'

Could he not have put a red line through the clause and continued playing? 'It wasn't something that we thought of when the change in the team was made,' he says. 

'Everyone expected me to be gone by the end of January.'

He says there are 65 days to go before his release. 'I am counting the days. It's like a sponsored keep fit, keeping fit until the summer so I can hit the ground running when I hopefully do get another club.

'I can apply a bit of perspective. We are very fortunate to do this job. But I'm desperate to play because this is hurting me.'

Green is desperate to play football again but knows his return to action is still a while off yet