Stoke City are shifting their focus to their upcoming match after the international break, with some crucial news from the bet365 Stadium. Wouter Burger, the 23-year-old midfielder, will be unavailable for the next game due to an automatic one-match suspension. This follows his fifth yellow card of the season, which was issued after he protested a decision during the match against Millwall. Referee Will Finnie had refused to award Stoke a penalty after Burger was fouled by Millwall’s Jake Cooper. While Finnie later apologized to Stoke manager Narcis Pelach for missing the foul, the yellow card remains in place.
As a result, Burger will miss Stoke’s away trip to Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, November 23, but will return to the squad for their home game against Preston North End on Tuesday, November 26. In addition to Burger’s suspension, Stoke now faces a situation with three other players—Ben Gibson, Ben Wilmot, and Andrew Moran—who are all on the verge of a suspension. Each of them has accumulated four yellow cards so far this season and will face a one-match ban if they receive another before the 19th game of the season, which is away at Sunderland on December 7. Pelach expressed his frustration with the situation, stating, “When (the penalty isn’t awarded) I don’t get it, and the worst thing is that now we have Burger suspended for QPR, which is such an important game for us, an opportunity to put a lot of difference between us and QPR.”
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