Confirmed: Kyle Bartley, Taylor Gardner-Hickman and Okay Yokuslu ruled out of West Brom clash v Stoke City
West Brom are running very thin on midfielders for their Championship clash with Stoke City on Saturday (15 April) after Carlos Corberan shared his team news.
The Baggies have picked up just two points from their last three games, leaving them all but out of the running for the playoffs with six games to go.
But as they prepare to face Stoke at the Bet 365 Stadium in their next Championship fixture, they’ll have to do it without midfield duo Okay Yokuslu and Taylor Gardner-Hickman.
Both Jayson Molumby and Jake Livermore are also doubtful for the game after suffering with injuries, while central defender Kyle Bartley has also been ruled out of the game.
Oh dear
If it wasn’t bad enough that we couldn’t get results in recent weeks against teams battling relegation, but now we have to go without a midfield.
It’s no coincidence that the bad results have come without Yokuslu available in the heart of the midfield, but it’s certainly now going to be even harder with all the other injuries.
Molumby came back from injury unexpectedly against QPR but he struggled and is now likely to miss the game again, while Livermore hasn’t been fully fit for a while.
As for Bartley, it’s probably a good thing that he isn’t fit for the next few games anyway. In a weird way it’s probably ideal that these injuries have come now when the race for the playoffs is already done.
But Corberan can now look to see which players can step up when he needs them to, although it will be very interesting to see what team he selects for the game with such limited options.
In other West Brom news, the reason why Bartley missed the QPR draw has been shared.