No risks being taken as West Brom's Daryl Dike suffers injury set back

The American was seen as the final piece of the jigsaw for former head coach Valerien Ismael when he arrived in a £7million deal from Orlando City on January 1.

But the 21-year-old, who was prolific for Ismael during a loan spell at Barnsley last season, strained his hamstring when making his full debut against Peterborough on January 22.

And just a few weeks later Ismael was sacked as boss after the Baggies crumbled to defeats against Preston North End and Millwall.

New boss Bruce had hoped to include Dike on the bench for Albion’s game at Bristol City on Saturday – a match which ended 2-2.

The striker was then due to play for at least an hour today – with the under-23s due to take on Nottingham Forest at The Hawthorns.

But the boss revealed the striker felt a tweak to a tendon in training on Friday. And that meant he wasn’t risked at Ashton Gate and also won’t be risked tonight.

“Big Dike was uncomfortable in training,” the 61-year-old said.

“The idea was can we get him through and be a bit part and then play him in the under-23s game on Monday at The Hawthorns? Unfortunately he was uncomfortable.

“It’s not quite the same injury.

“It’s a tendon further down I’m lead to believe. It’s the same leg as what he injured so we’re not going to gamble on that.

“We’re going to have to see how he is. It’s a real shame because he’s worked so hard to get back.

“But something is niggling at him and we have to take every precaution we can.”

Alongside Dike, Andy Carroll also wasn’t fit enough to play at Bristol City after picking up a knock in the win over Fulham last Tuesday.

And as well as missing his attacking threat, Bruce also felt they missed Carroll’s defensive prowess – with the boss labelling both goals Albion conceded as ‘school boy.’

“We were unfortunate with Andy, he didn’t recover from a knock,” he added. “Maybe if I had him on the pitch they wouldn’t have scored the second one.”