West Brom's Matt Phillips suffers setback to recovery from ankle injury

The 28-year-old has missed nine of the last 13 games with a tendon problem that first appeared at the start of 2019 and continues to cause him grief.

He was back in full training during the first half of the week but has suffered soreness in his ankle that will rule him out of the trip to Millwall tomorrow and also puts him in doubt for Tuesday's trip to Bristol City.

"Matt Phillips has had a little bit of a set-back in the last couple of days," revealed caretaker boss James Shan. "Matty has trained the front end of the week but hasn't trained in the latter part of the week so that will be a discussion with the medical staff.

"He's got a little bit of soreness in his tendon. It's a case of managing that, he trained very well in the front half of the week but he felt a little tenderness in that area.

"It's up to the medical staff to see how best now to move him on and get him back involved.

"He's obviously a key player for the team and somebody we'd like in the starting line-up as much as we possibly can, because he brings so much to the party."

Albion lost Phillips around the same time loanee Harvey Barnes returned to Leicester City, dishing out a double-blow on the Baggies attack.

Although he played against QPR and Sheffield United in February as well as Ipswich Town in March, he has not been available for Shan during his time in charge.

And the caretaker boss is keen to get him back up and running.

"He's a key player, high quality and physically very good as well," said Shan. "This season we've played him in different roles and he's taken it like a duck to water.

"He's got that flexibility which is always a big strength, you can tweak formations without making changes. It's frustrating when you've not got any player available."

James Morrison is also set to miss tomorrow's game at The Den after picking up a hamstring niggle against Birmingham City, while Gareth Barry remains a doubt with an ongoing knee problem.

Left-back Kieran Gibbs could be contention to play, and Shan hopes to have a clean bill of health in time for the Good Friday match at home to Hull City.

"Kieran's back in full training and doing well," said Shan. "James will be seven to ten days from the Birmingham game, he felt a slight issue with his hamstring, nothing too severe.

"Gareth, we're just trying to manage his injury at the moment. I'm hoping that once we get through this tough schedule and three games we'll return to a full strength squad to pick from for that Easter programme."