West Brom assessing defender Semi Ajayi for Preston trip
Albion will assess defender Semi Ajayi in training today before making a call on his involvement at Preston tomorrow.
The defender, a regular so far this term, rolled his ankle late on in last weekend's goalless draw against Millwall at The Hawthorns. He will return to full training for the first time this week today.
Ajayi, 29, has featured in seven of eight Championship games for Carlos Corberan's side this season. He missed the 2-1 home defeat to Huddersfield with illness earlier this month.
There is a question mark surrounding his availability for the trip to Deepdale, where Ryan Lowe's hosts still boast a 100 per cent home league record this term and, sitting in third, are the only club in the second tier yet to lose in the league this season, though they did exit the EFL Cup on penalties to fourth tier Salford.
Fellow defender Erik Pieters is fine to feature against PNE after some fatigue saw him miss a day's training. Ajayi has carried out some individual fitness work this week.
Corberan said of the duo at this morning's press conference: "Fortunately Pieters asked for a change but not for an injury, he was just feeling tired with the muscle, you can expect when playing three games in a row, especially 90 minutes against Watford with not a lot of recovery time.
"He only missed one training but he was doing normal training Wednesday and Thursday was a normal plan with the group, he will train today.
"Ajayi was a little bit different, in one of the last actions of the game he turned his ankle and couldn't train with the group, but he will train today and depending on training today we will make a decision."
Corberan confirmed striker Josh Maja is yet to make real progress on the ankle injury suffered late on at Bristol City and the new summer recruit remains in a protective boot. He was forecast to miss eight weeks with the injury, joining fellow centre-forward Daryl Dike on the sidelines.
Albion's head coach, meanwhile, confirmed that the quartet of Pipa, Nathaniel Chalobah, Caleb Taylor and Tom Fellows completed an important exercise in their bid for increased senior action with 45 minutes for the under-21s in a 3-0 defeat to Fulham on Monday.
Loan right-back Pipa, a deadline day addition, is yet to make his Baggies debut but played the first half against the junior Whites, alongside midfielder Chalobah. Academy products Taylor, a centre-back, and winger Fellows were substitutes and played 45 minutes.
"They had 45 minutes each, Caleb exactly the same, because we wanted to make normal training with the group," Corberan said. "The problem when you give minutes with the under-21s is to complete full training, they cannot train the next day or the day after, so you lose the two most important days of the week, Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Monday after Saturday is a recovery day, the best thing you can give to the players not playing minutes is to play minutes, Fellows, Chalobah, Caleb and Pipa didn't play minutes, so to compensate them the minutes without any loss to training.
"For Caleb, Fellows, Pipa and Chalobah it has been a very important week."
Corberan added on Spaniard Pipa's bid for debut first-team involvement: "Pipa is one very interesting player, one with versatility and one with quality, but at the same time we know in his position (Darnell) Furlong is a very important player for us.
"Every player can be important for the team, it just depends about the needs, the importance of the game, or the plan how I approach the game. Pipa is here because he can play minutes with us. But at the same time with Pipa is Furlong right now, a very important player for us."
