West Brom's Brandon Thomas-Asante reached out to Ben Wilmot after Stoke defender's injury
Albion striker Brandon Thomas-Asante has revealed he checked in with Stoke's Ben Wilmot after a coming together in Saturday's victory left the defender with a fracture in his back.
Wilmot was stretchered off in the first half at the bet365 Stadium following a lengthy period of treatment and Potters boss Alex Neil confirmed the 23-year-old will miss the rest of the season.
Baggies frontman Thomas-Asante was heavily jeered in the stadium and accused online of causing the injury after a shirt pull on Wilmot saw the defender land awkwardly on his back.
But the top scorer, who made it nine goals for the season with an opener in the win over Blackpool last night, said he understood the reaction of some Stoke fans and while the incident was totally unintentional he was sorry for the damage caused to his opponent.
"First of all, we're all humans," Thomas-Asante told BBC Radio WM. "I can understand where they're coming from. I don't think Stoke fans are all horrible people, I think there are great people there.
"I have spoken to Ben, I messaged him the next day and said 'I'm sure you don't want to hear from me, I just wanted to check in'.
"It's not something which happens intentionally. You can't bank on someone jumping just as you're pulling him. There are 1,000 pulls a game, it's a contact sport.
"With that said, I'm very sorry it happened. As I've said I've spoken to him. He says he's looking to recover quite quickly and be back in training in the next few weeks, so that was encouraging to hear from him.
"Credit to him as well, can I just say, because he could've taken it a different way but he was really positive. I look forward to seeing him again in the future and in better circumstances."
Wilmot, the former Watford defender, will play no further part in the season but issued an update on Twitter over the weekend saying he was 'OK' and hoped to be back for pre-season.
Carlos Corberan's Baggies, meanwhile, backed up their late surge for a play-off place as victory at Blackpool built on the success at Stoke to take Albion back inside the top six for the first time since early February.
Thomas-Asante's flicked finish at Bloomfield Road extended his tally as top scorer in the absence of Daryl Dike, who will miss up to nine months after rupturing his Achilles tendon in another serious injury at Stoke last weekend.
