Ebou Adams is one of the nine players who will miss Derby County vs. QPR.
Derby was predicted to be one of the dark horses in the second division this season after a hectic summer of transfer activity, but John Eustace’s team had a dismal start to the season, winning just one of their first ten league games.
David Ozoh’s goal in the 55th minute sealed all three points as the Rams defeated fellow struggling Norwich City 1-0 at Pride Park on Tuesday night, ending a five-game losing streak. Although they are now three points above the relegation zone, they have risen to 19th place in the standings. Derby is wallowing in the bottom half of the table, but QPR has had a fantastic start to the season. They won 1-0 at Swansea City on Wednesday night, and Rumarn Burrell’s goal in the 18th minute was enough to earn Julien Stephan’s team another away goal.
The Hoops may be disappointed that they did not extend their lead when Malick Yalcouye was sent off for the Swans in the first half, but they still managed to win away from South Wales and are now tied for fifth place in the standings with Charlton Athletic. We looked at the players who are expected to miss Saturday’s match between Derby and QPR. Defender Curtis Nelson played a major role in Derby’s 2023–24 promotion from League One and was a mainstay in the Championship’s first half of the previous season. However, he has been out since January because of a significant knee injury.
Although Eustace stated last month that Nelson was getting closer to returning to training, he won’t be allowed to play for the Rams until at least January because he was left off of the team’s 25-man roster. Eustace joined Derby on a season-long loan from Liverpool this summer, and defender Owen Beck was one of several players to reunite with him at Pride Park after working with him before at Blackburn Rovers.
Although Eustace hopes to get Beck back in training within the next week, the game against QPR will come too soon for him. Beck showed promise during his loan stint at Ewood Park last season, but he has not yet made his Rams debut. Ebou Adams, who has started all but one league game for Eustace’s team this season, is still an important member of the Derby midfield even though he lost the captaincy to newcomer Lewis Travis.
Adams has been wearing the armband for the past two games while Travis has been out, but he will be suspended after receiving his fifth yellow card of the season during the team’s victory over Norwich in the middle of the week. Similar to Beck, Travis joined Eustace at Derby this summer after excelling under him at Blackburn. Following a protracted transfer dispute, the Rams eventually signed him in a deal that could be worth over £3 million.
Following his arrival at Pride Park, Travis started six straight league games for the Rams. However, he has missed the following two games due to a calf injury that is likely to keep him out of action for six weeks. This summer, midfielder Liam Thompson agreed to a new two-year deal with Derby, and after starting the first three league games, it appeared that the 23-year-old would have a successful season. However, it is unlikely that Thompson would return before the beginning of November at the latest because he sustained a knee injury during training in September that Eustace stated would keep him out for five weeks.
In a major show of faith on Stephan’s part, goalkeeper Joe Walsh unexpectedly started the season as QPR’s first choice goalkeeper ahead of Paul Nardi. However, last month, just as he was starting to establish himself in the squad, he suffered a wrist fracture. Walsh was described as “continuing his rehabilitation from surgery” in the Hoops’ most recent fitness update last week, but no timeline for his return to action has been provided.
During QPR’s injury-plagued season last season, defender Jake Clarke-Salter made just 14 appearances in all competitions, the latest of which was back in January. Even though it has been confirmed that Clarke-Salter’s substitution less than 30 minutes into a development squad game against Bournemouth earlier this week was not the result of a recurrence of a muscle injury, he will probably miss the trip to Derby.
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