West Brom make Matt Phillips return decision for Millwall as Josh Maja update given
Matt Phillips will return from his four-month injury absence with a place on the bench for Albion at Millwall tomorrow.
Carlos Corberan's side are back in Championship action following the final international break of the season with a trip to The Den.
And the fifth-placed visitors hace received a major boost with Phillips part of the squad. He will not start until Saturday week at Stoke, at the earliest, but is set to play a role in the squad against Millwall and, hopefully, Watford on Easter Monday.
The influential Phillips, who turned 33 this month, has been out since the beginning of December, where he tore a hamstring in the home defeat to Leicester.
Striker Josh Maja, Albion's other injury victim closing in on a return, could make his comeback at Stoke on April 6.
Maja has trained for a week but is not ready to play a part against Millwall, who are 16th, and Watford.
Corberan said in his press conference on Thursday: "Both have been training and like we said before Phillips is in front of Josh in terms of his recovery.
"Josh completed last Thursday his first full training, so it means right now Phillips will be involved in the squad tomorrow, I can tell you, he will be with the team.
"Josh Maja, I think we are one week away from the medical approval that allows me to involve him, he still needs to accumulate more days of training.
"If everything goes well he will be ready to be part of the squad."
Scotland international Phillips was in fine form to start the campaign and his setback was a major blow for the Baggies before the busy Christmas period.
Corberan insisted there was no pressure on the winger on his return.
"Of course when you are a long time without the group you will need some time to be in your best condition to compete in a lot of minutes," the boss added.
"But there is no pressure on him, just the fact he can be ready to help the squad is an important and positive news for us.
"It's important to recover all players, he will not be ready to start in the next week, but it's positive to have him back, he is someone very useful from when I arrived to this club.
"I think he strengthens the squad because he has been a very important player for this squad and when I have been working here."
Phillips missed the final three months of last season with surgery on a quad muscle, but returned in excellent form this term.
"To have him back is always a positive," Corberan said. "Last year we lost many players at the same time, Phillips, followed by Grady, all long-term injuries. Rogic was not fit, Grant had problems in the quad, Reach came back in the same open day training but reacted with the bad four-month injury in the quad too.
"We accumulated injuries. Okay after the first game back, I think Millwall after the international break, then Molumby and when Chalobah was playing for Okay was injured too. Palmer too. We accumulated many injuries in the same period. It is something we want to avoid because if you have a lot of injuries you lose the strength of the squad."
