West Brom injury news as Nathaniel Chalobah injured during Premier League 2 defeat
West Brom may have suffered another fitness setback after Nathaniel Chalobah suffered an injury while playing for the under-21 side, according to Birmingham Live.
The newspaper reported on its website on Tuesday (26 September) that the midfielder managed to play the 45 minutes that was expected of him during the Baggies Premier League 2 clash with Fulham on Monday 25 September.
Chalobah and new signing Pipa both played 45 minutes in an attempt to maintain their match sharpness having been limited to short cameos from the bench if they have featured at all, but Richard Beale’s young Albion side were well beaten by the Whites, losing 3-0.
Explaining the midfielder’s involvement, Joseph Chapman wrote: “Chalobah, who joined from Fulham in January and who has a contract which runs until the end of this season, also completed 45 minutes as advised and, despite picking up an injury in the first half, he continued and completed his allotted time.
“He would appear to have slipped behind Alex Mowatt in the midfield pecking order after Mowatt took his chance on Saturday and impressed.”
Fallen
As Chapman explained, it is quite clear that Chalobah doesn’t sit high in Carlos Corberan’s pecking order currently, partly due to his indifferent displays for the Baggies and partly because of the impressive form of those competing with him for places.
Mowatt, like Chalobah, had seemingly fallen out of the Albion boss’ plans only to start and flourish in the draw with Millwall on Saturday (23 September), so there is certainly a route back for the former Chelsea midfielder, should he take his opportunity like some of his teammates have.
If he has picked up a genuine injury, it is unlikely to be any great loss to Corberan’s side as the 28-year-old has only started one Championship game so far this season and has been on the pitch for a total of 133 minutes of league action.
Hopefully, he’s come away unscathed and was just removed at half-time as previously planned as West Brom have occasionally called upon his services towards the final minutes of games. As they look for their first win in five against high-flying Preston on Saturday (30 September) they could do with the added depth on the bench.
But if the midfielder doesn’t begin imposing himself as worthy of regular football at The Hawthorns, it is hard to see how he’ll manage to earn himself a new contract next season. It is going to have to take some sort of special turnaround for Chalobah to come good after his start to life in the Midlands.
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