View: January exit surely on the cards for frustrated West Brom senior player amid latest reports
Before the season began, not many West Brom fans would have predicted that Ahmed Hegazi would be struggling to get a match once he returned from injury.
Hegazi, 28, underwent surgery on an ankle injury in the summer which meant that he would miss a large chunk of the start of the campaign.
The Egyptian colossus played in a couple of Under-23s games and international fixtures before finally making his first Championship appearance of the season in Albion’s 1-0 win against Middlesbrough on October 19.
Since then, Hegazi has been fully fit but has only made two further appearances where he started in the 2-1 win against Sheffield Wednesday and most recently came off the bench in the 5-1 hammering of Swansea.
Hegazi was nowhere to be seen on Saturday though as he failed to make Slaven Bilic’s bench for the 1-1 draw against Brentford at The Hawthorns.
Many assumed that it was due to injury or fitness issues but it emerged during the game that there may be a different reason.
Sky Sports reported on Saturday afternoon that West Brom had rejected a £3.4million offer from Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad for the centre-back while after the game, Bilic confirmed that “something happened” on the training ground on Friday in regards to the ex-Fiorentina man.
“It was nothing major that I’m going to discuss or share with the media,” Bilic added, as quoted by FourFourTwo.
“It was little things but big enough for him not to be in the squad today.”
It would not be a surprise to see if Hegazi’s absence, the incident at the training ground, the rejected bid and his lack of game-time are all connected.
FourFourTwo reports that Hegazi is frustrated with his lack of minutes in the Championship – which is understandable.
Hegazi has gone from one of the first names on the teamsheet to a fringe player.
Kyle Bartley and Semi Ajayi have been thoroughly impressive this season and neither of them deserves to get dropped to accommodate Hegazi.
It is a sad state of affairs because the Egyptian has always been a popular player among the West Brom fans but it does seem as though a move away from the Black Country in the January transfer window is on the cards.
In other West Brom news, Albion are plotting a £15million bid for one player in January.