Carlos Corberan furious at Josh Maja injury vs Sunderland as West Brom striker set for ‘at least’ six months out in first season
Carlos Corberan has slammed the “worst news” on Josh Maja’s injury after the West Brom striker was ruled out for at least four months with ankle ligament damage.
The Baggies forward went off hurt in the 2-1 defeat at Sunderland on Saturday 9 December after a foul by Dan Ballard which Kevin Phillips felt was worthy of a red card, having only recently come back from a lengthy absence due to another ankle injury picked up against Bristol City on 16 September on the end of a Kal Naismith challenge.
Corberan is unhappy that his striker is now set to miss “at least” six months of action in total during his debut season at The Hawthorns thanks to those two tackles, with surgery now on the cards.
Corberan said, via Birmingham Live (12 December): “Unfortunately everything I have to tell you is negative. In the tackle against Sunderland they broke all the ligaments in his ankle, it depends and the doctors still need to ask for a second opinion to see if there is any ligament to fix without surgery, but normally he will need surgery and be out of the team for the next four months. It’s the worst news we can give.
“He has received two big tackles, and the player with the tackle (should have) suffered with a yellow card and penalty in the first one and had a yellow card, the minimum, in the second one and now he will be six months out from these two situations at least, the same player with this type of action.”
Misery
Maja’s first West Brom season now looks set to consist of nine brief appearances that total less than two full matches unless he can return at the tail end of the campaign.
That is evidently a hugely frustrating return for him personally and the club, especially with no shortage of attacking fitness problems elsewhere in the squad this term.
It is especially crushing for the Nigeria international since he looked to have just turned a corner after battling back from the first lay-off, scoring his first for the club late against Leicester City and being rewarded with a maiden start at the Stadium of Light.
That his strike was cancelled out moments later by a heartbreaking late Harry Winks winner and his start was ended early by a needlessly aggressive against the Black Cats in his own half is some terrible luck.
It is no surprise that Corberan is so unimpressed in suggesting Ballard should have been sent off given the impact it has had on his man’s season.
Players don’t set out to injure opponents but it is hard to see how the Sunderland man wasn’t shown red after leaving both feet to perform a scissor-tackle from behind, and the fact that he then went on to open the scoring in the Baggies defeat added insult to injury.
Maja’s lay-off comes hot on the heels of a similarly serious hamstring problem for Matt Phillips to complete a damaging couple of weeks for West Brom, who did at least get captain Jed Wallace back in a goalscoring return to winning ways against Rotherham on Tuesday night.
In other West Brom news, Corberan has revealed “Premier League level” changes he has made behind the scenes amid the promotion push.