Tony Mowbray mulls potential return for West Brom defender

Vice-captain Bartley, 33, was a sore miss from Wednesday's 2-0 home defeat for Blackburn while serving the first of a three-match ban for his dismissal after full-time against Sheffield Wednesday.

He will also miss Saturday's clash at Millwall, though fellow centre-back Ajayi returned from more than three months on the sidelines for a place on the bench against Rovers.

Head coach Mowbray suggested Ajayi is fit enough to be considered to start and while his "wonderful attributes" and significant height will come as a boost, Ajayi does not carry the same dominance and personality to ease Bartley's absence.

"Yeah, maybe," Mowbray replied when asked if Nigerian Ajayi is ready to be called on from the off. "But I don't think Semi is Bartley, is he? He's six foot five, lightning fast. Bartley seems to have the personality to engage with the team, make accountability on the pitch.

"I'm not sure Semi's personality is that, while he's a lovely lad and has got wonderful attributes, I'm not sure one of those is the commanding of the team."

Ajayi played 45 minutes for the under-21s on Monday night as he stepped up his comeback following hamstring injury after a setback in October.

A chest infection for attacker Karlan Grant opened up another place on the bench for the Rovers reverse in midweek.

Mowbray added: "He wouldn't have been on the bench if he wasn't (fit enough to get on), it was because of Karlan's illness, it was worth it if we needed to put him on when winning 1-0 and they were bombarding us."

Mowbray added that Grant would be "touch and go" to recover from a heavy chest infection in time to return to contention against the Lions in Championship action in the capital on Saturday afternoon.

New recruit Tammer Bany will not feature. The deadline day £3.3million signing is still stepping up his fitness push having checked in from his homeland in Denmark amid the post-season break.