QPR striker Charlie Austin will delay departure until end of the season

Queens Park Rangers striker Charlie Austin remains committed to leaving the Championship club at the end of the season but will not depart during the January transfer window. Since failing to complete a summer move away from Loftus Road, Austin has been linked with a mid-season move to Newcastle United while Manchester United were among the teams reportedly monitoring his future.

The Daily Telegraph understood that Steve McClaren's side were plotting a £6m move for Austin in January after missing out on the player during the summer. The Evening Standard meanwhile reported after deadline day that Louis van Gaal made a late enquiry into the availability of the forward, who scored 18 goals in the Premier League last term.

Newcastle completed the signing of Aleksandar Mitrovic during the summer, but one win from the club's opening 10 league games sees them second bottom of the Premier League following the harrowing Wear-Tyne derby defeat to Sunderland. United also ended their search for a striker with the addition of Anthony Martial from Monaco but Van Gaal's side are only the seventh highest scorers this term.

Austin has scored seven goals already for a QPR side who have made a decent start to life back in the second tier, but despite knowing relegation to the Championship all but kills his hopes of being included in England's European Championship squad, the ex-Swindon Town hitman is happy to remain at the club until next summer. "I can't see myself leaving in January, because I'm concentrating on playing for QPR," Austin told Sky Sports, who was linked with late moves to Newcastle and United just two months ago. "I think I owe it to them and my loyalty is with them, to help them and try and get promoted.

"Football is a small career and you have to make the right decisions, the right moves. If it's right for myself, and my family and the people I bounce the ideas off that it is right for me overall then I will take on anything."

If Austin becomes available next summer then the prospect of signing the player on a free would likely see Newcastle and United, should they retain their interest, joined by a host of big name clubs fighting for his signature. Austin earned a maiden call-up to the England squad in the summer but after failing to make his international debut will be seeking a quick return to the top.