Carlos Corberan admits West Brom suffered with Kyle Bartley and Okay Yokuslu changes at Ipswich

The Baggies came agonizingly close to a key win on the road at the home of a promotion rival through Tom Fellows and John Swift goals but for Omari Hutchinson's 93rd-minute equaliser.

Corberan's men suffered personnel issues at Portman Road, firstly in the shape of centre-back Bartley, who had enjoyed an excellent first period, but was forced off at the break by a calf complaint.

Midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah was his replacement in a switch that moved Yokuslu, the visitors' other top performer, into the back four and Corberan felt his side missed the presence of both after the break, where it took the hosts less than a minute to equalise through Nathan Broadhead.

"If I am honest with you I think the injury for Bartley has affected the team a lot," Corberan told the Express & Star. "Because in this moment I was watching Bartley (playing) fantastic and Okay (playing) fantastic in the middle of the pitch too.

"But I understand that with their skills with set-pieces it was the best way to solve the situation.

"The first half – the fact that we score early affected us a little bit to defend how we did – I saw the team a little bit unstable in defence in the first half, it was something that we tried to fix for the second half.

"But in the second half before we started our game they scored the goal in the second phase of a throw-in and in the end of the game they scored in the second phase of another set-piece. It is true that in the second phase we didn't show the level we need to have. Is it because Bartley wasn't in the pitch or not? We never can know.

"I think the team, in some points in the second half, we attacked but we didn't attack enough to win a game like that one. At one point we scored a goal when we made more passes to start putting Ipswich where they can suffer more, in Ipswich.

"With Ipswich, with all the strength they have in attack, if you give them the ball too much it is very difficult to win the game."

Bartley's injury will be scanned and assessed over the next day or so with the visit of Cardiff to The Hawthorns on Tuesday night. Semi Ajayi plays in the African Cup of Nations final for Nigeria in Ivory Coast on Sunday night.

The defender's setback and Yokuslu's switch were not Albion's only personnel issues at Portman Road as striker Daryl Dike was helped off the pitch by a mobile stretcher buggy with what appears a possible fourth long-term injury setback in just over two years at the club – as Corberan confirmed afterwards the likelihood of an Achilles issue.

Albion rallied after substitute Dike's exit on 65 minutes and Swift, his replacement, scored a wonderful effort, his first in more than four months, as Albion went 2-1 up, but heartbreak followed with Hutchinson's stoppage-time strike.

On his side improving to go back ahead, the boss said: "That's why I say that for me the injury of Bartley was more difficult to adapt to. We had strikers on the pitch to keep trying to do the same idea.

"I think the key was – the pity I have is that in the moment (late on in stoppage time) we should have tried to have the ball more, we suffered more in extra time than before, I was thinking that to get the result would have been possible if we would have attacked more. But football is a question of emotion and we didn't find the right emotion and it's something we will insist to work on."