West Brom struggling with midfield injury crisis ahead of Stoke City trip

Carlos Corberan's stretched squad is particularly low on numbers in the middle of the park and the head coach may be forced into an experimental line-up at the Bet365 Stadium.

Okay Yokuslu remains unavailable with the ankle injury he picked up late on in the goalless draw against Millwall two Saturdays ago.

Fellow midfield regular Jayson Molumby did return from the bench against QPR on Monday but remains touch-and-go for the short trip to the Potteries after only playing a part in some training this week.

To add to the Baggies' woes in that department Taylor Gardner-Hickman is also out of the clash after suffering with a setback picked up at Rotherham, which he was able to play through against the Rs but is now struggling from.

"Okay is still not going to be available, he's not going to travel with the group," Corberan said in his pre-Stoke press conference this afternoon.

"He tried to train today, yesterday with the physios was much better, we involved him and have been preparing with him but at the beginning of the training he was feeling uncomfortable to work with the team.

"It's the same situation with Gardner, he received a kick against Rotherham that didn't affect the previous game (QPR) but during the previous game he felt some pain. Today he tried to train but during the preparation he showed he cannot be involved with the group.

"The only player who was making training, or doing a part of normal training, was Molumby, he couldn't make full training. We need to see how he reacts from the half-training that he was doing.

"If he reacts positively he's one option we have, if he doesn't then we cannot go with him.

"I cannot be talking more than one game right now, we need to be thinking game-by-game with each player we have and what we need to do with the possibilities we have."

Club captain Jake Livermore has been absent from the matchday squad recently, even given absentees elsewhere, and Corberan revealed he too has been struggling with a hamstring injury.

The experienced Livermore, soon to be out of contract this summer, has come through a couple of days training, though, and will travel tomorrow with a chance of featuring.

Nathaniel Chalobah is the sole senior central midfielder fit and available though Corberan may be tempted to look to under-21s captain Jamie Andrews, who has been on the bench in recent games.

Attacking midfielder John Swift has been used in a deeper role at times this term, while Tom Rogic is a similar possibility.

Corberan does, however, have good news in the return to availability of goalkeeper Alex Palmer, who has missed almost three months with what was described as an ankle and knee injury sustained in training.

Aside from a brief stint for David Button, youngster Josh Griffiths, 21, has been between the sticks for Albion in recent weeks. Palmer is finally back in contention and Corberan remarked at the level of training between his three goalkeepers this week.

He said of Palmer: "Yes (he is available), David is available, Palmer is available, Josh is available and it is my work to make the decision because for me the last two trainings have been amazing from the keeper's perspective.

"They have been very, very, very good, they didn't give any confidence to our strikers, I promise you!

"It arrives now a complicated and not the nice decision of the coach to select one that I think is right."