Charlton v West Brom: Addicks injury hell hurting Albion too
As good luck goes in the Championship, Charlton Athletic have had their fair share of misfortune when it comes to injuries - something Albion now know all about.
Jonathan Leko, on-loan at The Valley, is the latest to join one of the heftiest injury lists throughout the football league this season.
Charlton are currently missing more than ten first-team players, with Chuks Aneke, Erhun Oztumer, Macauley Bonne, Tomer Hemed, Jonny Williams, Josh Cullen, Jake Forster-Caskey, Beram Kayal, George Lapslie, Lewis Page and Ben Amos all on the treatment table.
Albion's young forward is to miss the remainder of the season, having injured his ACL in Charlton's clash with QPR in December.
But whilst it's a big blow for Albion and a massive one for the player, it could be even bigger for Lee Bowyer, who's seen his side plummet from the upper reaches of the Championship to 19th following their defeat to a Derby side who played with ten men for seventy minutes on New Years' Eve.
Leko was the pick of Albion's two loanees at The Valley, with the 20-year-old providing five goals and four assists this season for the Addicks. Villa winger Andre Green has been brought in to replace him, but it's fair to say he has big boots to fill.
In fact, as Leko heads back to The Hawthorns facing a lengthy lay-off, fellow loanee Sam Field is also enduring injury problems of his own at The Valley.
Field has not featured for Charlton in the league since October, and Bowyer's been unable to include him in his match day squads altogether since then following a knee injury picked up against Bristol City.
The former Newcastle midfielder initially suggested that Field could face an eight-week lay-off, but a set back for the youngster has seen that stretch on.
Whilst the terms of Albion and Charlton's loan most likely state that neither player could have featured against their parent club, the way things have played out - it's clear that the Addicks wouldn't have been able to do so anyway.
