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January transfer window: Depleted Albion may be forced into the market

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Albion boss Tony Pulis may seek to bring in a new midfielder this January to deal with losing James Morrison for up to two months and Darren Fletcher to a knee injury.

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Chairman Jeremy Peace is reluctant to spend in January, but Morrison has been ruled out for six to eight weeks after rupturing his hamstring against Chelsea last Wednesday and Fletcher was subbed at half-time against Southampton on Saturday after taking a knock to his knee.

How long the Baggies captain will be out is unknown at the moment, but he's a considerable doubt for tomorrow's FA Cup third-round replay at Bristol City and could also miss Saturday's derby at home to Villa.

"We'll see what happens, there's still two weeks of the window to go," said Pulis. "Fletcher's going to have a scan and then we'll look at it.

"We're hoping it's something we can sort out, but until it's scanned we just don't know how bad it is.

"We're disappointed with Morrison. That's a big blow for us because James has been a good player for us in that pocket.

"He works and helps the midfield players out, but he's got that quality to set us on our way.

"That's two very important midfield players for us and two players who've been very good this year.

"We don't need that. We haven't got a big enough squad to cope with those sort of injuries."

Morrison is Albion's joint-top scorer this season with four goals in all competitions.

Fletcher has only missed one game so far this campaign – a 3-0 defeat in the League Cup away at Norwich back in September. Before Saturday he had played every minute in the Premier League.

Albion are part-way through a run of five matches in 15 days, and Pulis blamed Saturday's poor performance on back-to-back away games in the space of four days..

"It's very difficult," he said. "It's the way it's dropped and you have to do your best.

I don't know why we couldn't have one away and one at home."