QPR boss hopeful over Willock injury
QPR boss Mark Warburton says he is hopeful Chris Willock’s hamstring injury is not too serious after the forward limped off at Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.
Willock was outstanding in the opening half an hour of the match before being forced off at the City Ground in a match that saw Rangers lose 3-1.
Rangers also lost goalkeeper David Marshall to a similar injury, with the club set to bring in free agent Kieren Westwood, with Seny Dieng, Jordan Archer and Joe Walsh also sidelined.
Marshall and Willock will both undergo scans on Friday and are out of Sunday’s match with Peterborough but Warburton is keeping his fingers crossed the former Arsenal man will be back sooner rather than later.
“You can’t scan straightaway, you have to let any inflammation settle down and we will find out more this morning (Friday),” Warburton said.
“But certainly from the eye and first impressions you would think Chris is far less serious than when David limped off unfortunately, so let’s see what happens.
“I spoke to a couple of people yesterday and they were laughing with me about the situation with the goalkeepers – don’t forget we had four wing-backs out at the same time earlier in the season which was quite bizarre.
“And now we have four goalkeepers out to serious injury. I have never come across this before but it is football – it’s one of those challenges and you have to deal with that.”
Against Forest, Warburton moved Rob Dickie into the middle of the back three with Jimmy Dunne moving the right and Dion Sanderson preferred to Yoann Barbet on the left.
Despite the defeat, Warburton was pleased with how the tweaks worked.
“Yoann has been excellent for us and it was nothing more than tactical, leaving him out,” Warburton said.
“Dion is probably the quickest defender we have got and putting him up against Brennan Johnson’s pace was the thinking and with Keinan Davis liking to drift to our right it put Jimmy up against him in the physical battle.
“This would allow our middle man to have the ball in Rob. That was thinking behind it and we were happy with the outcome.
“We played well, Rob was able to step into the midfield on several occasions and use the ball well so we were happy with that aspect.
“Yoann was bitterly disappointed, not because it ended his run of games in the team, which has been outstanding for a centre-half, but because every player wants to play and he had been good against Luton. But it was no reflection on his performance and purely tactical.”
