Ben Foster plays through pain for West Brom

England shot-stopper Foster is hopeful the injury will heal naturally with the help of painkilling injections as he looks to help the Baggies kick-start their Premier League season.

The 31-year-old, who admitted to a "schoolboy mistake" in Saturday's 2-0 defeat to Everton, returned early from international duty.

He had taken a painful blow on his thumb with scans diagnosing a fracture, but he is hopeful the injury will not require surgery.

"Hopefully not," he said. "I am managing it pretty well and getting some injections in it to kill the pain, so it's fine.

"It is the way it is and I just have to hope it heals itself. I'm hopefully it will and the doctors are as well so that's that.

"It's OK. There was a little bit of bone that I chipped off it in training, which is a little bit unfortunate. I have been trying to inject it and manage it a little bit.

"It definitely wasn't an excuse for Saturday because it's my left hand and the mistake was down to my right-hand side, so I can't use that as an excuse and I wouldn't anyway.

"I made some good saves with my left hand and that's the hand I broke a bit of bone off so there are no problems in that area."

Albion are without a win in the first four games of the Premier League season, leaving boss Alan Irvine under fire after his side were booed off following the Everton defeat.

But Foster insists they have played better than results suggest.

"It's disappointing," said the reigning player of the year. "We have actually played really well at points this season.

"We have been in games and made individual mistakes. We need to cut them out."