West Brom's Carlos Corberan admits injured Kyle Bartley was due a QPR recall

Bartley was due a return to Carlos Corberan's starting line-up for Tuesday night's clash at QPR, which ended 2-2, but felt discomfort in the muscle in training on Monday.

Albion's head coach said the injury "isn't serious" but was enough to leave him out in the capital, with two games left behind the March international break, beginning at Huddersfield on Sunday.

He limped out at half-time in the 2-2 draw at Ipswich a month ago and was sidelined for three games with the calf problem. Bartley was an unused substitute on his return in Hull and caught the eye on a cameo return in the final 10 minutes in the home victory over Coventry last Friday.

Head coach Corberan revealed he had the powerful centre-back in mind to start against the Rs due to his dominance from set-pieces, a particular strength of the Loftus Road hosts.

But veteran Dutchman Erik Pieters – who has been an impressively consistent presence in Bartley's absence – continued in the role in West London with Bartley sidelined alongside regular left-back Conor Townsend, who was also unavailable to Corberan with a hamstring issue.

Corberan told the Express & Star: "It is an injury, yesterday he felt something, we were thinking of him to start the game because we knew that the set-pieces was an important aspect, especially without Townsend, who is a player that helps us a lot in set-piece situations.

"We knew today to have size in the set-pieces would be an important aspect but unfortunately he was feeling the feeling in the same muscle, the calf.

"It doesn't look like a serious injury but he couldn't be involved.

"The doctors told me he wouldn't be ready today and probably tomorrow they will scan him and see how he reacts, it's a pain but doesn't look a serious injury, unfortunately he wasn't ready to compete."

Townsend has also been confirmed as an absentee for the trip to the Terriers on Sunday. Corberan started with Adam Reach at left-back at QPR before switching to Pipa on the hour, but the head coach admitted that both Albion options were struggling to get to grip with the hosts' lively options on their right flank.

Albion claimed a point in a lively contest in London. It was almost three but former academy graduate Sam Field netted his second goal of the game to equalise late on for the hosts after Baggies defender Cedric Kipre had controversially cleared a Field header off the line with his hand.