West Brom star Grady Diangana could be set to return next week amid links with a move away
Carlos Corberan has revealed West Brom winger Grady Diangana could be set for a return to the side next week.
Speaking to the Birmingham Mail on Friday (25 August), the Albion boss said he thought the 25-year-old, who has been linked with a move away this summer, could have been part of the squad for the game against Middlesbrough on Saturday (26 August) after returning to training.
But that looks to have come too early for the winger, as the Spaniard admitted that the fixture against Huddersfield Town on 2 September may be a more realistic goal after he hasn’t featured since February.
“The idea was to be involved after the international break with the squad,” said Corberan. “After this, we understand that maybe the game before – the next game we are going to play [Huddersfield] – he could be part of the squad, but he has accelerated this process and it makes us think that even this game, Middlesbrough, he could be ready.
“If he arrives to the game ready to compete, we should have reduced a lot the number of training he was doing. From a medical and physical perspective, they understand that he needs to train more with the group, accumulate more training with the group this week and then manage better for the next one.
“If he makes a good week next week, he can be involved in the next one because this week we have prioritised the volume of training with the group – he has been training a lot individually and there’s a difference – and next week he will train to be ready for the game.”
Bonus
It will be a welcome bonus to Corberan if he can get Diangana involved in the game against Huddersfield after he initially didn’t expect to have him back until after the international break.
The winger is seemingly making good progress as he looks to return to the first-team fold after missing several months through injury, having recently returned to training.
There are still big question marks, however, around whether or not he will still be a Baggies player by the time the game next week comes around after he has been linked with a move away from the Hawthorns.
Diangana has proven during his time at West Brom that he is a quality operator on his day at Championship level since arriving from West Ham initially on loan in 2019 before making the move permanent in 2020 for £12million.
Before suffering his injury, though, he did fall out of favour under Corberan, so it will be interesting to see what happens over the course of the next week.
In other West Brom news, one defender could be set to start against Boro following concerns over a first-team player.