Ryan Mason hopeful down time can help key West Brom man's recovery

Results from a scan on Thursday confirmed the issue and Mowatt was unable to prove his fitness ahead of the Blades clash.

Mason, whose side had a welcome eight days between last Friday and visiting Hull on Saturday, is optimistic some down time may help Mowatt recover from the issue to play some part in the busy festive period.

"Mowey picked up an injury against Southampton, we scanned him," Mason said.

"There's a problem there. He tried to do a fitness test on Friday (before the match), but he couldn't. So he's got a couple of days off now and hopefully he can improve as much as possible in the next 72 hours."

Albion returned to winning ways by extending their promising home form with Friday's victory via two second-half goals with Aune Heggebo and Karlan Grant on target.

It was the necessary tonic to successive away defeats last week and seven on the spin away from home as pressure cranked up on Mason.

Mowatt joined midfield colleague Toby Collyer, the Manchester United loanee, on the sidelines with Collyer missing until at least the new year with a calf problem.

It has put emphasis on the remaining natural two central midfielders Jayson Molumby and Ousmane Diakite to stay fit and firing with a busy spell ahead after the clash at Hull.

"Toby got injured, Mowey gets injured and now we're down to two midfielders," the head coach added. "So it's a thin squad but that's fine as long as I've got men that are willing to run and compete for each other and for the team and we need to try and make it work."