Chris Brunt honoured by Albion club legends

But the fact a whole host of Albion legends still descended on The Hawthorns to celebrate Chris Brunt's 300 appearances for the club shows the respect the Northern Irishman carries at the Baggies.

Brunt – who was having surgery on his knee in Lyon – has joined an elite list of 44 players to reach the milestone, of whom just 18 survive.

A dozen 300 club members attended the evening last week, and they were full of praise for the 31-year-old, as they heard he had been ruled out of Euro 2016.

"In the modern game for a player to stay at a club as long as that to accumulate over 300 games, it takes some doing," said John Wile, who clocked up 618 appearances at centre-back in a 13-year stint at the club during the 70s and 80s.

"It's something which I don't think happens much in today's football and I don't think it will happen after this group of players are finished. You've always got competition within the club for your position, so to play 300 games at one club just shows you how good a player the lad is.

Brunt's Baggies career in numbers

314 Number of WBA games

272 Number of starts for WBA

42 Goals scored for the club

70 Number of assists for the club

54 Caps for Northern Ireland

1 International goals scored for Northern Ireland

31 The left back's age in years

9 Brunt's years playing for the Baggies

3 How much he cost in millions of pounds

51 Number of yellow cards picked up

0 Number of red cards picked up for the club

2 Number of times he's finished top scorer for WBA

"It's a shame that he's injured and he's not been able to come. Let's hope he recovers fully and gets back on to the field as quickly as possible.

"The medicine today is fantastic, it's come on a hell of a long way.

"People get injuries today that years ago would have finished them but now they can do some marvellous things and hopefully he'll be OK and come back stronger for it."

Left-back Graham Williams captained Albion to victory in the League Cup final in 1966 and the FA Cup final in 1968.

Now 77 years old, the former Welsh international was delighted to see legendary team-mates from those cup-winning sides like Bobby Hope and Doug Fraser.

"It's a couple of years since we've seen each other," he said.

"It's important because not only meeting the boys that I've played with but also the new boys that have played 300. It's nice to meet them and to get to know them and be part of West Bromwich Albion."

Williams has also enjoyed watching Brunt play for the past nine years.

"He must be the best on assists at the club in a long time," said the twice cup-winning captain. "His free-kicks are brilliant, he's got great control and a great left foot."

One of the more recent inductees to the 300 club is Bob Taylor.

Devastated after hearing about Brunt's injury, 'Superbob' said the way the fans reacted to the Northern Irishman getting hit by a coin proves how strong his relationship is with the supporters.

"It was nice to see the fans pull together," said Taylor. "He's been here nine years, the club must mean something to him too otherwise he wouldn't stay around that long."

Getting struck by that coin would have tested Brunt's patience to its limits, but the response from both the fans and former players proves beyond all doubt that the former club captain is now a modern-day Albion legend. The dozen 300 Club members who attended were Tony Brown, Ally Robertson, John Wile, Graham Williams, Cyrille Regis, Bobby Hope, Bob Taylor, Doug Fraser, John Kaye, Paul Raven, Daryl Burgess, Len Cantello and Ally Brown.