The 8 players set to miss Derby County v QPR | OneFootball

The Rams host the London club on Saturday, with a combined octet of first-team players unavailable, which team is looking the most depleted?

Derby County will be hoping to perforate the top-half of the Championship table this weekend with an exciting clash against a struggling Queens Park Rangers, while the R's will be battling to leave Pride Park with enough points to leave the relegation zone. But with injuries aplenty in each camp, who has the advantage?

Tomorrow sees a fixture that made up the Championship play-off final exactly ten years ago. While both teams would cherish a promotion push, they have fallen on harder times of late, struggling to make a significant impact on England's second-tier.

What won't help either side is their recent flurry of first-team injuries. In the lead up to this all-important fixture, we take a look at which team will be most affected by their Saturday sick list.

David Ozoh (Derby)

Starting with perhaps the most unfortunate of the lot, we have promising Crystal Palace loanee David Ozoh.

The 19-year-old defensive-minded midfielder was immediately trusted in Paul Warne's starting eleven following his arrival from South-London, and was beginning to put in some stunning performances including a man of the match worthy display against Bristol City, grabbing his first senior goal.

Ozoh went down in the 50th minute against Cardiff with a hamstring injury, and has been sorely missed in midfield since. He misses this one, but appears to be ready to return before the end of the month, a massive boost for the Rams.

Jack Colback (QPR)

A knee injury sustained at Sheffield Wednesday has kept the former Forest and Sunderland midfielder out for the last four matches.

Winless in all four, QPR may be missing the 34-year-old's experience in midfield, but will have to wait until atleast the end of October for his services.

Fans may be concerned that this is not his first knee injury, as a similar ailment kept him out of 15 matches for Newcastle between 2019 and 2020.

Callum Elder (Derby)

Out with a groin injury sustained at Sheffield United in September, Paul Warne stated that the left-sided utility man would be out for at least three or four games.

Jake Clarke-Salter (QPR)

The former Chelsea man is out until at least November after a knee injury sustained against Millwall in November.

JCS would have been frustrated as he had missed the previous two fixtures with a calf strain, returning only to damage himself further in an unrelated area.

When fit, Clarke-Salter is undoubtedly an asset in the Loftus Road club's back four, and will be sorely missed this month.

Jake Rooney (Derby)

A sorry state of affairs for the young scouser, as he has seen just 12 league appearances since signing for the Rams in 2022.

The 21-year-old missed almost the entirety of Derby's promotion campaign with a knee-injury, and just as he had finally regained fitness, suffered further complications which are predicted to keep him out until April 2025.

Liam Morrison (QPR)

Joining from Bayern Munich's reserve side this summer, Morrison was attempting to break into the R's starting eleven with two impressive winning performances in the Carabao Cup.

Sadly for the Scotland Under-21 international, he will have to wait until at least the end of the month to taste his first Championship minutes.

Liam Thompson (Derby)

Similarly to Elder, the 22-year-old is sidelined with a groin issue.

Rated highly by the Derby faithful, the Nottingham born midfielder has six appearances this season, scoring one goal.

Tom Barkhuizen (Derby)

With over 400 EFL games to his name, Barkhuizen is an elder statesman in a usually young Derby side.