Carlos Corberan confirms ‘difficult’ West Brom injury blow ahead of Birmingham City clash

West Brom have been handed an injury blow ahead of this weekend’s Midlands derby with Birmingham City.

The Baggies have been in fine form of late, defeating Sheffield Wednesday during the week to move into the playoffs. Carlos Corberan’s men also defeated high-flyers Preston over the weekend, and they are now unbeaten in five games ahead of a derby clash with a Birmingham side who have returned to winning ways in bold fashion on Tuesday, defeating Huddersfield Town 4-1.

Though, it’s now all good for West Brom, who have a big injury blow in the form of Jeremy Sarmiento.

The attacking midfielder has been battling through a quad injury, and speaking ahead of the clash with the Blues at St Andrew’s, Baggies boss Corberan has said: “The risk with Jeremy to play the game, whenever he is playing more minutes, always there is a risk because he’s a player who hasn’t had the habit to play games.

“It looked like he was recovering well, from the game against Millwall, and I had him in mind when we were preparing for Preston, but from the muscle perspective he arrived at Preston with half a full recovery. He had some pain in the quadriceps. From our medical department, they understood it was just normal from the fatigue of the game, after it being a long time without playing.

“That’s why I decide not to play with him in the first XI against Preston and I’d have him ready from the bench. He was playing some minutes and at the end of the game, he felt pain in the muscle, in the left quadriceps. With this pain, he was receiving treatment on Sunday and when the doctors checked – when the pain was there and didn’t disappear, they made a scan – yesterday, it showed an injury. It is going to keep him apart from the group for four weeks. It’s difficult.”

He added: “The fact we don’t have Maja or Sarmiento for the next four weeks, the two players who we brought to the club to help the attack, it is difficult to accept. The first injury of Maja was an accident, in an action that from the point of view of the referee wasn’t a penalty. We lost him for eight weeks.”