Former West Brom and Stoke City man still a free agent after Luton Town trial

Former West Brom defender Erik Pieters remains without a club since his departure from the Hawthons this summer.

The 36-year-old was one of several players to depart the Baggies this summer, and has not yet signed with a new team. It was reported in July that Pieters played for WBA's Championship rivals Luton Town in a pre-season friendly.

The Hatters aimed to make a quick decision on the Dutch defender, and a contract was not given to Pieters. In September it was reported that he was open to a return to the Eredivisie. He has kept himself busy in the mean time as he shared a post recently on Instagram of him attending the Football for Change Gala at the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool.

Pieters has made 555 club apperances to date and has 18 caps for the Netherlands national team. He played for Stoke City for a large part of his career, making 206 appearances. Pieters also turned out 140 times for PSV, and also played for Burnley, FC Uterecht and FC Amiens. At West Brom, Pieters made 61 appearances after joining in September 2022.

There has been nothing to suggest that a return to West Brom could be on the cards but they do still have a space in their squad to sign a free agent. An update from Carlos Corberan will come this week, and he's likely to say where Kyle Bartley is with his recovery from his knee injury.

Corberan gave a time frame of about three to six weeks for Bartley's return after he went under minor surgery. and that was at the end of October. The best case scenario is he is back after next week or he looks at mid-December instead to make sure he is fully healed and there are no complications.

Paddy McNair and Semi Ajayi face a longer spell out on the sidelines however. McNair is on loan until the end of the year but his hamstring injury has him out for eight weeks, whilst Ajayi will miss 16 weeks worth of action.

In the mean time, West Brom have adopted a makeshift centre back partnership of Torbjorn Heggem and Mason Holgate. Heggem recently celebrated promotion to League A in the UEFA to Nations League with Norway.