Derby County face Stoke City tomorrow as they look to bounce back from their 4-1 defeat to QPR in midweek that left them in the relegation zone

Former Derby County striker Conor Washington has backed John Eustace to transform the club's fortunes as soon as his injured players return. Defeat to QPR in midweek has left Derby in the bottom three of the table heading into the game with Stoke City tomorrow having just won just one of their opening 10 games.

But injuries have been a huge problem for Derby and have decimated their defence with just one fit centre-back available for the visit of Mark Robins' side. Derby have badly missed the experience and leadership of Matt Clarke while Eiran Cashin, Derry Murkin, Craig Forsyth, Charlie Taylor, Sondre Langas, Jacob Widell Zetterstrom and Max Johnston are also out.

Clarke and Cashin are due to return next month as is influential striker Patrick Agyemang who scored 10 goals last season. And Washington, who worked with Eustace at QPR, believes Derby will get upwardly mobile once they start to get players back.

"I've worked with John a couple of times in my career, as he came in as assistant to Steve McClaren at QPR when I was there," he told BettingBonuses.co.uk.

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"His attention to detail and hard work were obvious from the first moment, and he coaches with real intensity. He's also done a great job of surrounding himself with top coaches like Keith and Gards.

"I can imagine John is doubling down on the detail and the hard work in order to give the players the best possible chance to win games of football.

"We all know the Championship is relentless and it's so easy to get on a bad run, but similar to when he first came in, I'd back him to turn things around when the injured lads return."

Despite the injury crisis Eustace is grappling with, Derby's head coach has said he will have to find solutions to pick up results.

Ryan Nyambe was drafted into play centre-back on Wednesday night against QPR when he was widely tipped to leave the club in the summer.

Eustace says they cannot feel sorry for themselves over the state of the injuries and added: "It's part of football. It's part of the Championship. We work with a no-excuse culture.

"Ultimately, it's about results. I have to find ways to try and get results. That's what I'm judged on, and that's what we're all judged on.

"It's very evident that we have got a lot of injuries, and some who are still getting used to the Championship and all that kind of stuff. We need to learn quickly, and I need to find a solution quickly to make sure that we start picking up some more points."

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