West Brom have six first-team players currently out injured, and three of them have suffered injuries in the last month alone.
It all came together in mesmeric fashion at Preston North End, when Albion scored three or more goals in a league game for the third time in the season. Since then, they’ve managed two goals in three, both scored by a player who they won’t benefit from the talents of for at least another month and the next four games.
West Brom injured quartet Daryl Dike (top left), Jeremy Sarmiento (top centre), John Swift (top right) and Josh Maja (bottom)
John Swift, as anyone of an Albion persuasion is well versed in right now, is by no means the only absentee that Carlos Corberan is contending with right now. They lined up, in their own clothes, at full time on Saturday to greet their weary teammates, unable to produce inspiration of their own while they rehabilitate…Swift…Daryl Dike…Josh Maja…Jeremy Sarmiento was in attendance, too.
As well as long-term pair Adam Reach and Martin Kelly, the treatment room is particularly crowded right now, and has forced Corberan to dip into the academy to flesh out his squad in training and on match-day. The attacking quartet of Swift, Dike, Sarmiento and Maja stand particularly helpless at the moment.
Is it over-exertion in training, pure misfortune? Nothing could be done about Maja’s, nor Dike’s, nor Kelly’s – he suffered his on loan. Reach’s was a relapse at Burton and corrective surgery was sought. Swift, Corberan reasons, suffered his at Blues because of the weight of dependence on him to play a greater bulk of minutes in the absence of injured others – an injury as a result of other injuries.
Back to Tuesday. QPR, in the bottom three, cut adrift and in wretched form, represent as inviting an opportunity (on paper) as Albion are likely to receive at any point this season. They had their fingers burned against Huddersfield and squeaked past Sheffield Wednesday thanks to the quality of Swift, but now they need somebody else to step up and take responsibility.
“When you don’t have all your offensive resources, the solution needs to arrive from the players we have right now,” Corberan admitted after the goalless draw with lowly Plymouth over the weekend. “It’s something we’re conscious of and we must give the right answer.”
Brandon Thomas-Asante is out of sorts, Grady Diangana has blown hot and cold since his return and Jed Wallace, the final player of the remaining cluster currently available, is only steadily finding his own performance levels after a slow start. Tom Fellows could get a crack, and hopefully he’ll take his chance after recent encouraging cameos, but Corberan would naturally rather not have to call on the young winger and would prefer his horde of injured attackers to be available and involved.
God forbid that any more injuries occur before Albion reaches the next international break checkpoint, at which point at least three of those absent will hopefully return like a cavalry. In the meantime, Albion needs motivation from the factors they can control.
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