The highly rated West Brom midfielder who broke club record before suffering injury hell and retiring at 29

Top of the list in recent times is Morgan Rogers - who is now starring at Aston Villa have originally departed for Manchester City.

There are many others. Others who have gone on an excelled - and some who Albion fans will have wanted to have made a mark in their first team and become a regular fixture at The Hawthorns.

One possibly falls into that category is George Thorne - the talented youngster who arrived on the first team scene in 2009 and went on to make eight Premier League appearances for Albion.

Albion picked up Thorne when he was one of the many talented youngsters left without a club after Cambridge United closed their youth scheme.

Fast forward a few years and he was being handed his Albion debut - at 16 becoming the youngster player to represent Albion in a competition match since Bobby Hope, a record that was later eclipsed by Izzy Brown.

He then went on to sign a professional contract - before loan spells elsewhere followed.

Between 2009 and 2014 he was being tipped to break through - to become the next one off the production line.

Albion rated him highly and he featured in a handful of Premier League games before picking up a serious knee injury.

They still had high hopes though, handing him a new deal but after a loan spell at Derby County - the Rams wanted him permanently and Thorne, amid competition for places in the Albion midfield, wanted to go.

Despite resistance from Albion and having said at the time they have, 'no intention to sell', he did eventually make the move to Derby after the Baggies initially turned down a £1m bid.

He became a regular for the Rams, helping them to a play-off final but he went on to endure injury hell that he never recovered from.

He tore his ACL in a friendly - and despite getting back to fitness he broke his leg on the final day of the Championship season.

He went on to Oxford United and at one point revealed he was playing for free - but his professional career was over at just 29.

Thorne opened up on the struggles of his injuries in an interview with the Daily Mirror back in 2022 - explaining how he had to remove himself from football because of the mental toll it was having on him.

He said: "I just had to completely shut off from football to be honest, I’ve got two young children and I had to completely come away from the game," he added. "I stopped watching football for a bit because it was painful.

"I’ll be honest I wasn’t doing a great deal, I wasn’t in a good place, I wasn’t being very productive. I was probably tough to be around for my family.

"I wasn’t doing much with my life and it pretty much got to the stage where I had to do something again for health reasons. The intention was never to start playing football professionally again. It was just to make myself a better person again.

"I didn’t know how to accept where I ended up. It took me some time, then Covid came, we came out the back end of that and I just thought let’s get going again."

He went on to have a spell at Southern Premier League Central side Bedford Town before calling time on his playing days.

What is George Thorne doing now?

According to recent information, despite not playing anymore Thorne is still involved in the game.

He was reported to be in talks about a coaching role with Derby - and in 2023, he was named as assistant manager at St Neots Town before departing the club.

He is listed has having other coaching roles - and on his Linkedin page he is listed as having been an academy coach at Oxford United since 2023.