The midfielder on loan from MK Dons will not feature this Saturday

Paul Warne does not want to send midfielder Will Collar any conflicting messages while out on loan at Burton Albion.

The MK Dons midfielder is ineligible to face his former club this Saturday at Stadium MK, but has made a decent start to life in Staffordshire, featuring 16 times for the Brewers and scoring two goals in his last four games.

Deployed in a more advanced role than he was seen in his 26 appearances for Dons following his move from Stockport County in the summer of 2025, Collar has been a firm fixture for Burton boss Gary Bowyer and for the most part left alone by those back at his parent club.

“I don’t want them to be out on loan, do a debrief with their manager and then get another manager coming in and stirring the pot,” Warne admitted when speaking about Collar. “I can’t tell Will things I want to see from him if that’s not what Gary has asked him to do. It’s conflicting for players.

“You play to the style of the manager. And you have to play to that or else you don’t play.

“I don’t get too involved because I’ve got my own problems, which sounds awful. With loan players, I do watch their games and their clips, and if I see something amazing, or they score, I do reach out.”

But it is not entirely ‘non-contact’ between Warne and Collar.

The head coach continued: “I speak to Will, but I’ve not spoken to him this week because I don’t want to put him in a difficult position. He’s really enjoying it there, he’s been playing a lot for them.

“But I did speak to Will recently, because he told me about the birth of his second child, which is great, and when he scored I spoke to him then as well. It’s more on an ‘uncle’ basis than a ‘dad’ basis that we speak.”