West Brom injury latest with key Daryl Dike update and Kyle Bartley issue
West Brom could have the perfect tonic to losing top goalscorer Josh Maja in the coming weeks - that being that Daryl Dike could finally be set for a return to action. US forward Dike has been sidelined for almost an entire year after a ruptured Achilles suffered last February at Ipswich Town, followed by a serious hamstring injury which derailed his comeback bid in October.
Dike joined Albion in January 2022 but his three years at the club have been ravaged by injuries; the striker has made just 32 appearances, including only 15 league starts, while returning eight goals. Albion spent up to £7m to bring him to The Hawthorns from Orlando City and, to that end, his regular lack of availability has been a real pity for all concerned.
He is now, finally, able to think about returning to action for the first time in nearly 12 months, which interim boss Chris Brunt confirmed on Friday ahead of the visit of Stoke City on Saturday.
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"He's trained most of the training session today so that's him (back) in more-or-less a full training session," Brunt said. "It'll be monitored obviously week-on-week with sports science and medical, they will look after his load and all that stuff to give him the best chance to get match fit and have an impact on the pitch.
"He's champing at the bit, he's raring to go, you're almost having to calm him down because he's so eager to get back involved. That's credit to him because the amount of serious injuries he's had, it's devastating for anybody, but to be fair to him he's cracked on with a smile on his face and got back to a decent place. Hopefully we can look after him and he can have an impact for us between the end of the season."
Kyle Bartley's participation ahead of Saturday's game is in the balance, however; the centre half missed the defeat to Bournemouth in the FA Cup last weekend with an unspecified niggle and, ahead of the double header with Stoke and Middlesbrough on Tuesday night, it remains to be seen whether he'll be made available.
"Obviously Kyle Bartley was left out last week as well, just with a niggle, we'll probably give him as much time as we can, probably for the game tomorrow and Tuesday, to see how he is with that. We have to wait and see," Brunt added. "He's one you always have to manage due to the game time and the way he is and to be fair to Barts he's really good at that himself, he knows his body and is good at managing himself."
Albion, of course, confirmed the loss of Maja to a lower leg injury earlier this week. It'll require surgery and keep the forward, who has returned an impressive 12 goals so far this season, out until the spring. Brunt admits there's no getting away from the fact that it's a hammer blow to the Baggies' attacking department and to the player himself after such a commendable first half of the campaign.
"It's a massive blow, he's been really good this season and not just for his goals tally alone," Brunt reasoned. "His play for the team, his link-up play, he's a very clever footballer. After the tough season he had last season with a couple of injuries we were really looking forward to getting him back up to full fitness.
"Those injuries are part and parcel of football, it's just unfortunate this one is longer than what we expected, but hopefully it'll get sorted quickly and he'll be back ready to go for the end of the season, it'll be like getting a new player.
"He was left out with a niggle but you go for scans and results, they take a bit longer than expected, you wait for second opinions sometimes and we had to do that, it confirmed what we didn't want to hear. It's unfortunate for him because he's brilliant this season."