Baffling Derby County player situation has continued - why is he still at Pride Park? | OneFootball

Conor Washington has not made an appearance for the Rams all season, but he remains at the club.

John Eustace has his work cut out to turn Derby County's season around, with goals and wins extremely scarce at the moment.

The Rams have lost eight times in 2025 alone, picking up just two points since the turn of the year, and they last tasted victory on Boxing Day against West Bromwich Albion at Pride Park Stadium.

With just one win on the road in the Championship this campaign, time is running out for the East Midlands outfit to get themselves out of the relegation zone and towards safety. However, there are just 12 games left to do so and fears over an instant return to League One are feeling very real.

Derby's lack of attacking quality has been evident all season long, but there has still been no place for one member of the squad, and there will be plenty of questions as to why he has remained with the club throughout the course of the last year.

Derby should have sorted out Conor Washington's situation earlier

Conor Washington was brought in from Rotherham United on a two-year deal at the start of the 2023/24 campaign by Paul Warne and his time with the Rams has been lacklustre to say the very least.

He made 19 appearances in League One, scoring three goals, helping the team to promotion back to the Championship. However, since the club returned to the second tier, he has been seen very rarely.

Washington has made the matchday squad only four times in all competitions this season, last making the bench against QPR in a 2-0 win at home in October.

Many expected the striker to be let go in the January transfer window, but, alas, there was no movement and he remains a Ram until the end of June, when his contract finally comes to an end.

It's a frustrating situation for not only the club, but Washington himself, and Derby will have wanted to find him a new home so that he was taken off the wage bill and the 32-year-old could finally get back to playing football.

He has also lost his place in the Northern Ireland international team this season as well, adding to his problems, and with just a handful of appearances for the Rams' U21s side, this is not how he expected his time in DE24 to end.

Conor Washington will leave Derby County as a forgotten man

It seems unlikely that Washington will be given a chance by Eustace before the end of the campaign, and his exit looks guaranteed.

His goalscoring record in the Championship has not been good enough in the past for Derby to risk playing him this season and moving down to League One or League Two looks incredibly likely in the summer.

Nevertheless, the former QPR forward's departure will not be one that supporters will hold too many emotions over, and instead there will be plenty pondering why he was brought to the club on a two-year deal if he was not going to feature if promotion was won.

Washington is in the twilight of his career and he would not have wanted his time at this level to end in this way, but for the good of all parties, parting ways is needed and it should have happened sooner.