Carlos Corberan confirms six FA Cup starters for depleted West Brom with key trio sidelined
Albion could be without captain Jed Wallace for another two weeks due to an adductor problem.
The winger is sidelined for Sunday's FA Cup tie at home to Aldershot Town after missing the defeat at Swansea on New Year's Day with the setback he felt late on in the victory over Leeds.
Head coach Carlos Corberan gave a timescale of 15-21 days from the point of the injury one week ago, putting Wallace's place in the home league game against Blackburn next weekend at risk.
Attacking availability blows continue to plague the Baggies. Scans on John Swift's calf have revealed no injury, but the club are still concerned and trying to identify why the attacker is struggling with pain that has ruled him out against Leeds and the Swans.
Midfielder Jayson Molumby has also been ruled out of featuring on Sunday due to pain in his foot, which has required injections.
Other members of Corberan's first-team squad, some who were in line to feature against the fifth tier Shots as the head coach rotated his ranks, are also struggling with niggling problems.
Corberan said of Wallace, Swift and Molumby: "Molumby didn't recover well, Swift didn't recover well, Wallace hasn't recovered. We know Ajayi and Diangana are with their national teams and Maja and Phillips are injured.
"The scan of Wallace showed that he has a grade 2 injury of the adductor in the right leg. It's true that if you see the injury, why it appeared, it's a fatigue injury.
"This muscle activates when the player makes crosses. If you analyse the games, the last two games, he made more crosses than in any of the games before.
"The number of games, the repetition of similar actions, can create this type of injury in the player. This injury is around 15 to 21 days, from the moment it appeared, it can give you a bit of possibility to imagine how long it is going to take.
"Swift also had fatigue, but there is no injury in the muscle. This is a positive thing, but the negative thing is that he wasn't able to be a part of the game at Swansea.
"We managed the minutes before and now we must go into more detail as to why, without injury, the player hasn't been able to play normally, as he had before."
Corberan confirmed the "challenge" for Molumby was to return for Blackburn the following weekend.
The head coach vowed that Albion’s rotated squad tomorrow have a “fantastic” opportunity to stake their claim for more regular league action.
“When you arrive to this time of year, sometimes the squad can unbalance a little bit. Some have had lots of minutes, others have had less minutes,” he said. “All of them are part of one squad and this is a fantastic opportunity for players who have had less minutes, but they are part of the squad. Sometimes these players use the opportunity in a good way, and it changes their role that they had previously.
“The past never exists – we only evaluate the present. Sunday will be a fantastic opportunity to evaluate, to rebalance our squad and to use all of our resources, all with the target that we have which is to keep going in the cup.”
Conor Townsend struggled to get through training this week while Adam Reach, who was expected to start, is suffering from muscle tightness. Albion are assessing how the latter reacts.
Martin Kelly, another who would have started, is feeling pain in his calf and struggling to feature. Reyes Cleary, the regular under-21s goalscorer, is missing with another hamstring injury.
Corberan confirmed back-up goalkeeper Josh Griffiths will start, as will loan full-back Pipa, academy graduate centre-half Caleb Taylor and experienced defender Erik Pieters.
Also confirmed to start are winger Tom Fellows and striker Daryl Dike, for the first time in almost nine months following injury.
The head coach hinted that other youngsters will be in the matchday squad, including attacking duo Jovan Malcolm – recalled from loan at Cheltenham – and Akeel Higgins.
Corberan suggested that, due to problems with those who had been earmarked to feature, some of his regular first-teamers could be called to duty on what would otherwise have been an afternoon off.
