Josh Maja missing for West Brom Blackburn opener but Jeremy Sarmiento set to travel
Albion will be without new recruit Josh Maja for tomorrow's trip to Blackburn – with a plan set to involve the striker against Swansea the following week.
Maja, 24, this week's centre-forward signing from Bordeaux in France, is catching up with his new team-mates' fitness levels having not gone through a pre-season with a club.
The striker worked diligently alone with a freelance training agency but head coach Carlos Corberan wants the one-cap Nigerian to go through five or six days of individual fitness work to bring him up to speed – some which have taken place this week.
The striker will miss tomorrow's curtain-raiser at Ewood Park and is not set to be involved in the Carabao Cup next Tuesday but the aim is for Albion's Hawthorns bow against Swansea on Saturday week.
Corberan's other new signing, Brighton loanee Jeremy Sarmiento, will be involved in the 20-man matchday squad in Lancashire. The Ecuadorian has trained with his new club having completed rehab on a fractured metatarsal earlier this summer.
"No, impossible," Corberan said this morning of Maja featuring.
"Sarmiento is a different situation. The only difficulty with him is that he had surgery last March and the process of the surgery was finished two weeks after we started pre-season.
"It allowed him to be working with Brighton for ten days before they travelled to the US.
"He did 8-10 days working with them, so he arrived here with six or seven training sessions with the group. It means that he is not ready, but he's available. There's a difference."
Missing for Albion are long-term absentees Daryl Dike, Martin Kelly, Grady Diangana and Adam Reach – who this week underwent successful surgery on a quad issue.
But Jayson Molumby is fine to travel and is available for selection having trained this week after pain in the knee kept him out of the final pre-season friendly against Bolton.
"Molumby is going to be one of the available players," the boss added. "You will see who I decide to play, but he is going to be involved in the game at Saturday."
