QPR manager Mark Warburton has suggested that he fears Lyndon Dykes might be being pushed too far with the number of matches he is playing for both club and country.

Dykes has been enjoying an excellent campaign this season with the forward establishing himself as the R's main talisman upfront in terms of goals.

That comes despite the summer arrivals of the likes of Charlie Austin and Andre Gray, with him firing home six goals in his 14 Championship appearances so far this term.

The 26-year-old has also been in fine form for Scotland throughout their qualification campaign for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Dykes has managed to fire home vital goals against the likes of Moldova, Austria, Israel and the Faroe Islands to help his nation put themselves in with a chance of reaching the World Cup.

The forward is once again set to depart QPR during the international break to help Scotland in their upcoming games, but he is set to be suspended for their clash with Moldova next week. Despite that though, he has already played over 80 games for the R's and his nation since he signed for QPR.

Speaking to West London Sport, Warburton suggested that he fears Dykes might possibly end up burning himself out with the amount of games he is being asked to play.

He said: “He offers an unbelievable work ethic, he pushes through injuries and not much really bothers Lyndon.

“He had a nasty ankle injury which he recovered from very quickly thanks to the job the medical team did with him.

“You saw the other night the shift he put in against Cardiff. In the last five minutes he was tracking back 60 yards to do a defensive job and I thought he was outstanding.

“But I am really conscious about the number of matches he has played.

“Next week he misses Scotland’s match against Moldova but I am guessing he will play against Denmark.

“He is playing a lot of football and it just making sure we don’t overload him.”

The verdict 

You have to share Warburton’s concerns here because Dykes is a player that is absolutely vital to the R’s hopes of being able to mount a successful push for the play-offs this season. Therefore they will be needing him to remain fully fit and firing for the rest of the campaign if they can possibly do.

However, Dykes is a player that leads from the front and always puts a major shift in with his performances. So, there is a chance that he might potentially be at risk of overdoing things at some stage with the volume of minutes that he is getting through with both the R's and with Scotland.

The major issue for QPR is that Dykes has been his nation’s leading marksman in their World Cup qualification campaign to date.

That means that they are not going to want to rest him in their crucial remaining matches, so the R's will have to just hope he avoids the sort of burnout that Warburton fears.