QPR are reconsidering their new contract offer to Joey Barton.
Barton is now serving a ban for being sent off against Hull City.
His current deal, worth £75,000 a week, expires in the summer and talks over an extension were scheduled to take place at the end of the campaign should the club remain in the top flight.
Barton's low-key performances and lack of discipline in the top flight is understood to have sparked debate among the hierarchy over whether he should be allowed to go regardless of their fate, says the London Evening Standard.
