Tony Pulis expects majority of West Brom's injured players to be fit for Deportivo La Coruna
Tony Pulis expects the majority of his crocked players to be fit this weekend for Albion's final warm-up game of the summer.
Jake Livermore, James McClean, Chris Brunt, Matt Phillips and Craig Dawson all sat out Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw with Port Vale after picking up knocks in recent weeks.
Gareth McAuley and James Morrison are already sidelined with injury and won’t be travelling to Spain to face Pepe Mel’s Deportivo La Coruna side.
But Pulis hopes they are the only two absentees this weekend before Albion's season-opener against Bournemouth on August 12.
“We're hoping everyone will be ok apart from Morrison and McAuley for the Deportivo game,” said Pulis. “And I think everyone will be around fit for when the season starts.”
It’s a worryingly long injury list for such a small squad; highlighted at Vale Park by the amount of youth team players Pulis was forced to play.
McAuley and Morrison, who injured themselves on international duty in June, are the two players least likely to be available against the Cherries.
Although they will be nearing fitness around the start of the season, having missed all of Albion's pre-season fixtures, they won’t be match-fit.
But Pulis played down the severity of the other injuries, saying the senior players were left out against Vale as a precaution.
“They're all little niggles and knocks and we don't want to take any chances with them,” he said. “We're very careful and cautious. We don't want to make them any worse and if we have to pull them out, we'll pull them out.”
Salomon Rondon also missed last night's game, but he has not picked up an injury, and was simply rested.
Pulis insists he is happy with the amount of time his senior players have spent on the pitch in pre-season.
“They've all got the minutes,” he said. “We want so many minutes for the senior pros during pre-season.
“If they play the 90 minutes against Deportivo, I think we're up to the minutes we did last year, although we've done a lot more travelling this year.”
Albion have already been on gruelling tours to Austria and Hong Kong and played three games in seven days on their return to England. The squad now fly out to Spain this weekend to face Deportivo.
It means just two teams in the Premier League, Arsenal and Manchester United, have done more travelling than the Baggies this summer.
“It's something we're not used to but something we have to deal with,” said Pulis.
