Striker Ishmael Miller Albion was last night ruled out of Albion action until Christmas to deliver another injury blow to boss Tony Mowbray.
The powerful on-loan Manchester City striker became the FIFTH Baggies star to head for the casualty unit with knee trouble after limping out of yesterday’s Black Country derby at The Hawthorns.
Four players have now been crocked in the last three games for luckless Albion - Miller following Kevin Phillips and Martin Albrechtsen’s exits against Sheffield Wednesday which was then followed by the loss of James Morrison at Coventry.
And Albion already had Neil Clement out of action following a recovery from knee surgery in the summer which has seen the club’s longest serving player only just getting back to serious training.
It is a run of injuries which is testing both the resilience and the depth of Mowbray’s squad as the Baggies now face up to an arduous week of travelling and tough bread-and-butter challenges at Plymouth and Crystal Palace.
To further the waters for Mowbray in the forwards department, he had only just allowed summer signing Bartosz Slusarski to go on loan to Blackpool, an agreement which cannot be undone for 28 days.
Miller crashed out of the action seven minutes from the end of yesterday’s goalless but absorbing contest as he stretched to put over a cross from the by-line.
“Ishmael could be out for four to six weeks - pending a scan,” revealed Mowbray. “The initial signs from the medical department are that it’s lateral knee-ligament damage.”
It leaves Craig Beattie and Roman Bednar as the most likely specialist forwards to fill the vacancies although Mowbray has shown a liking to deploy his attacking midfield players Zoltan Gera or Filipe Teixeira in advanced roles of late.
He also has Sherjill MacDonald and even the previously redundant John Hartson under his wing but both are less likely to be considered - and there remains cheering news about Phillips’s rate of recovery after being stretchered off against Sheffield Wednesday 19 days ago.
“Kevin is back on the training pitch which suggests he is only weeks away from playing,” added Mowbray.
“We’ve got to get on with what we’ve got for now. That’s football and there is no point sitting here bemoaning it.”
29 Comments
shame
Step forward Roman Bednar.
I hope we go back to 4-4-2 and this doesn’t mean we stay with one upfront, I think we’re a much more effective side playing like that as it allows us to get in behind teams a lot more.
Yesterday, and 50 minutes against Coventry proved that 4-4-1-1 doesn’t work well if you’re trying to break a team down who sits back. Wolves didn’t have to work as hard as plenty of other teams will for that point yesterday.
If Bednar is as good as has been suggested, and one of the other strikers steps forward, I think we’ve got enough quality to be able to win most games in this division.
The good news is that we are 2nd in the table and we still have squad players who can do a job.
We need to get through this next 4 to 6 week period and then look forward to January when we will have Phillips and Miller back.
January onwards is always the business part of the season.
We won’t be the only team with injuries, but I do think that more depth in the striking department must be a January priority.
I`ve took a look at the blogs, here and on the other side.
There is several people with severe phsycological issues,
who in their right mind gloats over possible career threatening injurys?
it`s beyond pathetic.
Kightly limped out of the game,
do i wish him ill will?
not on your life.
Anyway, another blow losing Ish,
with Bart on loan we look a bit thin on the ground with stiking options,
never a good time to get a ruck of injuries, but with three away games out of the next four,
it will test our resolve.
didnt impress me to say he can cope with out super kev
and to say there squad is able to hope mcdonald n beatiee showed me nothing to suggest that
how many goals do bednar, beattie and mcdonald have between them in last two season for all clubs to suggest they are able to keep you top two??
wba biggest miss isnt miller its super kev, he would buried the two chances miller had in an instant
5. WBAForever.
you quite rightly label people how gloat over players injuries as beyond pathetic. I agree. Then you say you don’t wish Kightly well, so is this a sizn that these so called football fans , that are beyond pathetic sway your opinion , my God how weak. I wish Milliar a speedy recovery as he is a terific talent, irrispective of wot you wish for Kightly.
Never mind you have always got fat man Hartson to fall back on, a bit of exercise will do him good, the only running he`s been doing is when the dinner bell rings.
wba first choice strikers are out, this will mean someone else has to step up and be counted. Heres a chance for another talent to shine. It is a blow though.
As for Kightly, I hope he recovers too.
South London Wolf
Read my comments again.
South London Wolf i think you should read WBAForever’s comment again.
He’s stating he wouldnt wish ill will on Kightly.
I went to the game yesterday and i 2 think the draw was a fair result, but on the grounds that you had a penalty you should have won, but Wayne guess right. I know how you Albion fan must feel as we have missed our fair share of penalty kicks.
5 not all fans wish ill health on players,like you said it is pathetic but to do the same back also makes you pathetic. All fans are lost without crucial players,no one likes their players to be injured.I hope they all get fit soon.
Ish missing is not a great loss as he is not the same without Kev . Saying that you could see the relief from both the wolves players and fans when he went off so he is a handfull even when he has a terrible game like yesterday. Good save from the wolves kid from tex although my dad who has had 2 new hips and is 71 could have saved the penalty thank god gera was never here when we had to score a real important pen (in the scheme of things the wolves one is not that important with so much of the season left)bring back IGOR now he can score real pressure penaltys lol!!!.
sadly the muppet stone island brigade throwing things at injured players was the only bad thing I bet your mother and fellow wolves fans are so proud of you you idiot
5Ihave read your comment again fair play for not wishing harm on Kites you are right to criticize the sad people that do that.
South London, you have not read it correctly. This was posted by WBAforever, he is a good guy.
Please wolves fans, learn to read!!
No. 5 says - Do I wish Kightly any ill will. NOT ON YOUR LIFE.
This means NO. He does NOt wish
Kightly any ill will. Get it?????????
Thanks to
Malvern & Wolves the champs
I dont know how my comments could be misconstrued as to meaning anything other than wishing Kightly
well.
Fair result,
i knew it would be close,
too bloody close actualy,
and i`ll go on record as saying the Wolves are easily the best visitors we have seen to date.
Thanks again for the support guys.
Ish is a big loss for us, especially on top of losing Kev as well. Now step forward the supporting role. They need to seize their chance. Hopefully we can stay in touch up to Christmas. Plymouth away looks hard.
January’s around the corner & I guess we’ll both be dipping into the transfer market so here’s to a nail biting Christmas period, as far as injuries and suspensions go, and see you at the finishing line!
I can understand why Man. City have let Ishmael Miller out on loan. He is great when he has the ball at his feet and can run at players BUT in general play, he is lazy.
Against the Wolves and in other games I have watched in recent months, he likes other players to do all the hard work for him. He does not make runs or close other players down when needed. When he gets the ball he only looks for goal. Selfish. There have been times when there have been players in far better positions to score but he doesn’t see them and doesn’t appear to LOOK for them!! People dont like Craig Beattie but when he came on, he was moving across their defence and making runs for other pkayers to pick him out. He could have scored two goals. Maybe if he had been match fit, he would have done! Bednar also moved around their defence and caused trouble so there is hope for goals with these players. Lets get behind them when they play instead of moaning or booing. We all respond to encouragement and we will only see the best from these players if we support them. I need to do the same cos I criticise as well but I can change.
Most championship sides without Phillips, Miller, Albrechtsen, Morrison and Clement would struggle against the drop. Thankfully our squad is probably the strongest outside the premiership and we can cope (I wouldnt want any more injuries especially up front) so this is where it should count for us.
Thankfully all of our contingent should be back in January.
I never wish any player injury - South London Wolf can I suggest adult literacy courses, your reading skills leave much to be desired (fair play to Laura wolves who at least realised her error and took it back).
no 8 didnt hartson score a pen past u ?
phillips may be bac in 2 weeks
Wolves appear to be a better team this season than last and Albion had a poor day by our recent standards. Hopefully we can return to normality now (whatever that is) - everyone managed to save face with the nil nil.
I hope we can muddle through without Ish and KP for a few weeks - we are really missing Kev’s team play and influence as well as his goals.
I hope Ish AND Kightly are back playing soon, and as much as i enjoy the wind up I genuinely hope we can have this derby in the prem where it belongs next season.
Nice to hear our drummer got his drum back !!
I hope your guys come back soon, as I hope our guys do.
Until you have to play without key players no-one knows what will happen, We as loyal oposition supporters hope you cannot replace them to the same goal scoring standards as Kev.
Up the Wolves
It is really encouraging that so many of the people on this site are so sympathetic to the injured players. The morons who are not cannot be seen as representative of the true fans or the human race for that matter.
I hope the injuries to our players will quickly mend so we can start to seriously dump some of the other ’serious’ contenders. lets face it, the best thing to happen is that we both go up and we have full strength teams in the premiership.
I am seriously warming to baggie fans. Some of you are quite decent people even though your taste in soccer teams is highly dubious.
Good luck ish and Phillps and here’s to the event at Molineux.
May I apologise on behalf of the majority of Wolves fans who feel sympathy for Miller. End of the day it was a fair result and saved me from a lot of grief at work today
ish will only be out for 1/2 weeks i spoke to him this afternoon and the scan showed no damage he will be fie very soon.
I have to say I sometimes give wind up comments back to the handful of cretins that come over here having a dig,but as a well adjusted human being (maybe),and football fan,I cringe when I see ANY honest player get seriously injured,and I also hope as many West Midland clubs as possible get to the premiership so the region is well represented in the top flight.Without local rivals, half the passions gone.