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Tony Pulis frustrated as Albion plans are halted

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Boss Tony Pulis has admitted to finding international breaks 'disheartening' as Albion continue to assess injured duo Jonny Evans and James Morrison.

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Both remain with the club as they battle to be fit for key Euro 2016 games with Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Gareth McAuley and Darren Fletcher have both been passed fit and travelled to link up with their respective squads but Pulis admits to being 'really concerned' when players with injury issues go away on international duty.

Salomon Rondon is another player over whom the head coach will be keeping his fingers crossed.

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The £12million striker played in Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Crystal Palace despite having not fully shaken off a back problem and the Venezuelan international now faces World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Brazil.

Rondon will not return to Albion until next Thursday at the earliest, giving medical staff little time to assess the 26-year-old before the Premier League meeting with Sunderland on Saturday week.

For Pulis, very much a hands on coach, frustration over the break stems from an inability to work with his players on the training ground.

"It's such a stop-start part to the season," he said. "It's not been brilliant for managers and people who want to go out on the training ground and work with the players and coach them and be with them – I'm certainly one of those.

"Lots of managers out there feel the same and there's other managers who don't. They've got top players and just let the players play.

"But I find it disheartening at times that you have them for a couple of games and then you lose them again for two weeks. That said, we're no different to anyone else so we've just got to get on with it."

Evans, who limped out of Saturday's game, is being assessed "day to day" for a hamstring strain while Morrison, suspended in any case for Scotland's qualifier with Poland on Thursday, has an ankle injury.