West Brom to be without Karlan Grant for ‘couple of weeks’ – Steve Bruce
West Brom are going to be unable to call upon top scorer Karlan Grant for the next couple of fixtures after Steve Bruce provided an update on his fitness.
Albion’s leading striker was absent from the squad entirely last night as the Baggies went on to beat promotion-chasing Bournemouth 2-0 at The Hawthorns.
Alex Mowatt and Grant’s replacement Andy Carroll scored the goals within minutes of each other during a blistering start to the game as West Brom bounced back from their derby day defeat to Birmingham at the weekend.
Bruce confirmed after the victory that Grant would definitely be out for Saturday’s game away at Stoke and he could even miss the Easter weekend fixtures too.
“He’s got a bit of a calf strain and he’s not well either so I don’t think he’ll be fit for Saturday either,” Bruce said, as quoted by the Birmingham Mail. “We’ll see how he is but I would think it will be a couple of weeks.”
Carroll is the man
As we saw last night, Grant’s absence isn’t going to be felt quite so much now we’ve got a highly effective alternative in Carroll.
The 33-year-old was simply sublime last night in dominating the Cherries’ defenders in every way, even running in behind to grab his goal rather than the traditional holding up of the ball that he is so good at.
Bruce won’t enjoy the fact that his top scorer is unavailable altogether but with the former England international at his disposal, it isn’t the biggest concern he could have.
Stoke on Saturday might prove to be an entirely different prospect to Bournemouth with the Potters, similarly to us, having very little to play for this season.
If traditions are anything to go by, they won’t mind the battle against the barbaric Carroll on what could well be a very wet and windy day in the Potteries.
In other West Brom news, could this loanee return to The Hawthorns to add some much-needed firepower to the Albion midfield?
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