QPR assessing Burrell injury – and Stephan explains Nardi recall
QPR are assessing another injury suffered by Rumarn Burrell during their 3-2 defeat at home to Derby County.
The striker, recently back after three months out with a hamstring injury, limped off late in the game at Loftus Road, having come on as a substitute.
Derby’s late winner was scored when Rangers were down to 10 men, with Burrell having gone off with the home side having made all their permitted substitutions.
Speaking shortly after the game, head coach Julien Stephan said he had not yet had a chance to speak to Rangers’ medical staff about the possible extent of the injury.
The Frenchman said: “He felt something and was not able to continue. I don’t know exactly what happened.”
Stephan was at a loss to explain how Rangers lost a match in which they played some excellent football and led twice.
Harvey Vale put them ahead and Oscar Fraulo levelled, before Richard Kone put the hosts back in front with his 10th league goal of the season.
Sondre Langås hauled the Rams level again, and Jaydon Banel’s 85th-minute strike secured the points for John Eustace’s team.
“I don’t know (how we lost). A lot of frustration at the end of the game for us,” said Stephan.
“There was pride at the way that we played, how we started the game. It was exactly what we needed to do – impose ourselves on the pitch with a lot of intensity, good movement, attack and be very aggressive in the opponents’ half.
“We played unbelievable in the first hour. It was probably the best hour of the season for us. But we created a lot of chances and after one hour we had kept the opponent alive, and when that’s the case you never know what can happen.
“And then when you play the last 10 or 15 minutes with only 10 players on the pitch, it’s more difficult.
“But for the future we need to manage these type of games better and kill them off when we play this well. It’s difficult to play better football than we did today.”
Stephan made a change in goal, restoring keeper Paul Nardi in place of Joe Walsh.
Nardi, who is set to leave QPR this summer when his contract ends, has been overlooked for much of the campaign, with the club keen to give Walsh a chance to establish himself.
“No injury. It was a choice. I think Paul kept a very good mindset and I wanted to give him the opportunity to play, so it was just a choice,” Stephan explained.
BiroBiro 
26/04/2026 @ 10:27 am
Firstly, more drivel from a coach who simply writes off loses like we have hot dinners.
He doesn’t know what’s wrong with Burrell, so when the physio’s attended to him on the pitch & then left the pitch, they never spoke 1 word about what was wrong or why Burrell was holding the back of his leg, like a hamstring has at least twinged, if not gone fully.
It’s stated ‘…impose ourselves on the pitch with a lot of intensity, good movement, attack and be very aggressive in the opponents’ half.’
But all of that is undone when you defend like kids yet again!
It goes on with ‘We played unbelievable in the first hour. It was probably the best hour of the season for us. But we created a lot of chances and after one hour we had kept the opponent alive, and when that’s the case you never know what can happen.’
Unbelievable? Best hour of the season? It’s the 45th game of 46 games for god sake!
It was better than most games in a way, but dominance doesn’t win games, goals do. As the manager is stating he believes this is the best hour we’ve played all season, he should now leave & let us bring in someone who can get the players doing this every game!
Creating a lot of chances means nothing when you lose!
As for keeping the opponent alive & not knowing what can happen, it’s more lies only because he should know what happens by now, having seen it repeatedly with his own team too.
He added ‘And then when you play the last 10 or 15 minutes with only 10 players on the pitch, it’s more difficult.’ But for many teams, the 10 men gel better & often get a draw or even win,so not more difficult at all. Before Burrell went off, Derby was already pushing hard & even as a QPR supporter, you could only see 1 team winning the game, which they did.
The last comment is ‘But for the future we need to manage these type of games better and kill them off when we play this well. It’s difficult to play better football than we did today.’
That’s utter garbage too!
We haven’t managed 1 game like this all season & to be honest, as the manager, he should be orchestrating the management of the games from the sidelines, it’s only his job. I’m sure he’s said this in previous games too, so not learnt a damn thing, but not killing teams off seems to be what our season has been about, when going into the last game of the season, we still have a negative goal difference that won’t be turned around. You tend not to win games, let alone kill teams off, when you keep defending like schoolkids & that hasn’t been changed all season. When we’ve kept clean sheets or won, like against Portsmouth, we didn’t do it with a mean defence, we did it because their shooting was as woeful as ours is most games.
He is also a complete fool to state it’s difficult to play better than we did today. If it was that good, we would have taken more of the chances created & won comfortably! We only did it for an hour according to his own words, but sadly, matches are an hour & half, so they couldn’t even keep it going for 1 full match & this is the best of all the season.
I’d imagine he told the players that they were unlucky to lose & that he was proud of them, but they lost because again they don’t take the chances they create, but to add to it yet again, they don’t defend well at all either.
I do hope the owners get rid of him because when managers come out & talk rubbish like this, no one appreciates it & the players should be mortified that yet again, they let a lead slip because of the same 2 things that they’ve allowed to happen, most of the season.