West Brom's Steven Reid played with a broken leg

West Brom boss Steve Clarke today revealed how injury-hit defender Steven Reid played for 45 minutes with a broken leg.

The experienced full-back completed the second half of the 2-0 December defeat Arsenal despite fracturing a bone near in his shin in the first half.

Reid, who returned as a substitute in Tuesday's FA Cup defeat to QPR, will miss tomorrow's derby against Villa after suffering another blow.

Clarke said: "We didn't release the details of the injury but it was a fractured fibula he got against Arsenal and he played 45 minutes with a broken leg.

"That just shows the character of the boy. He's got another knock in the same area now. It's not serious but he will probably miss the weekend, which is more our decision than his.

"We are just trying to protect him from himself. It's a small bone on the outside of your shin, so it's not a weight-bearing bone.

"But you can imagine the pain the boy was in."

Meanwhile, Clarke was due to assess the fitness of midfielder Claudio Yacob today before deciding whether to end the Argentine's six-week lay-off against Villa.

Yacob, Shane Long and Marc-Antoine Fortune are all rated at 50-50 for the derby.

Clarke said: "Claudio's had five training sessions and he's working well. This game might be too close for him but I will take another look at him after training and make my decision.

"But he's doing well and is in a good place. When I came to the club in the summer, Claudio was the one type of player I wanted - a defensive midfield player that you could rely on to be sitting in there and breaking up play.

"He did a great job for us and got injured and the team has missed him over a number of games. If he'd been out for two or three we would probably have coped, but consistently being without him has stretched us a bit.

"We have also missed Youssouf Mulumbu as well to injuries, suspension and the African Cup of Nations and those two were crucial earlier in the season to the way we played and the rhythm of the team.

"Recently, we have lost that a bit but I can see that coming back, which is good."