Express & Star

Slaven Bilic gives West Brom injury update ahead of Fulham

Slaven Bilic will continue to assess his options at left-back with Kieran Gibbs and Conor Townsend unlikely to feature against Fulham tomorrow.

Published
Kieran Gibbs

Gibbs, who has an ankle problem, has an outside chance of still being involved at Craven Cottage with Bilic set to run the rule over the 29-year-old in training today.

But Townsend will definitely not be available – with the former Scunthorpe man set to return to training next week.

It means Nathan Ferguson, who started at left-back against Blackburn, could continue to the role. The 18-year-old impressed playing at centre-back for England under-20s on Monday.

But Darnell Furlong and Chris Brunt could also be under consideration for the left-back role.

"Conor is not available," Bilic confirmed.

"It’s one of them, I said before Blackburn if the game was a couple of days later he would be involved.

"It looked like that but it’s not, it’s nothing major and he had a scan which as come back all clear. He should be in training next week.

"Kieran is training with us today but we’ll see. It might be too early, he will train today and then I will decide."

Albion had a host of players in action over the international break but Bilic confirmed none of them have reported back with an injury.

The head coach revealed Grady Diangana didn't feature for England under-21s in their matches against Turkey and Kosovo due to having a sore throat.

And he boss confirmed Ahmed Hegazi is closing in on a first-team return, with Bilic believing it is just match sharpness keeping him out his squad.

"He (Hegazi) is very close and, of course, we are delighted by that," said Bilic who celebrated his 51st birthday today.

"He’s a major player for us, last year he was voted into the team of the season.

"He’s very close to being back. He had a long break, so he needs a couple of games.

"I expect him to be back before the next international break, but it all depends.

"He’s on 95 per cent he can’t be any better, but that five per cent match fitness is the key at the end of the day and it makes the player ready after a long-ish absence. So far he’s doing amazingly."