Albion’s injury worries deepened today as Youssouf Mulumbu joined the casualty list and Luke Moore was ruled out of Saturday’s clash at Preston.

Hawthorns head coach Roberto Di Matteo woke up to consider possible changes for the Deepdale trip following the meek defeat at Barnsley last night.

But the Italian’s options are becoming increasingly limited and Moore will now be missing for the weekend with Mulumbu also a doubt.

Moore missed the 3-1 defeat at Oakwell with a knee injury sustained in the weekend loss to Crystal Palace and scans have now revealed damage that will keep the former Villa man sidelined for at least another week.

And Mulumbu was forced off at half-time against the Tykes last night with an injury that will be assessed fully today before Di Matteo begins drawing up plans to take on North End.

“Luke has a strain on his medial ligament,” revealed Di Matteo. “He won’t be available for Saturday but after that there is a two-week break and hopefully he will be fit after that.

“Youssouf has got a knock on his ankle and was in pain so we changed him at half-time.”

Di Matteo hopes to be boosted for the trip to Lancashire by the return of Marek Cech from an ankle injury.

But the Slovakian is still not certain to be ready in time, while James Morrison is still out injured and Jerome Thomas has one match remaining of his three-game suspension.

Di Matteo was down to his last 18 fit, senior players at Barnsley but the squad included Abdoulaye Meite and Filipe Teixeira, who are increasingly on the periphery of the boss’s plans.

However, Di Matteo refused to use the injuries to explain back-to-back Championship defeats to Crystal Palace and Barnsley.

He said: “I don’t want to use excuses. We used the players we had on the pitch because I believe they are good enough.”