Boaz Myhill buzzing to be back in action for West Brom
Boaz Myhill would have had to be dragged off the King Power pitch after enjoying his first minutes of league football for more than a year.
The stand-in keeper started his first Premier League game since April 2016 on Monday night because of a worrying knee injury to Albion No.1 Ben Foster.
Myhill then picked up a knock in the second half during a high-paced collision with Jamie Vardy on the edge of the box after a poor back pass from Ahmed Hegazi.
It left him with a dead leg that encouraged 21-year-old third-choice keeper Alex Palmer to start warming up on the sideline.
But even though Myhill went down with the injury a few minutes later, causing a disruption to play, the 34-year-old soldiered on for the rest of the game.
He said: “It’s an absolute joy to play Premier League football and having been out of it for 18 months I was never going to come off.
“They would have had to have dragged me off. Before the game the gaffer told me, as he always does, to enjoy it and that’s exactly the right attitude. It’s brilliant to play Premier League football.”
Myhill struggled in January’s FA Cup defeat to Derby County at The Hawthorns, but he was a superb replacement for Foster during his 10-month lay-off with a cruciate knee injury between April 2015 and January 2016.
The Baggies are sweating on further tests taking place this week on Foster’s knee injury and there is not yet a definitive time-frame for this return.
But whenever Foster does return, Myhill wants it to be as difficult as possible for him to get his place back.
“Now I want to keep Ben out of the team,” he said. “We’ve got a great relationship and he will understand that.
“We all know what a great keeper he is but it’s my job to stop him playing and that’s what I’ll try to do.
“I’m not sure what my injury is yet but I want to be there again on Saturday (playing Southampton).”
Albion have now gone seven games without a win in all competitions, and let leads slip late on in three of those games, against Stoke, Watford, and Leicester.
But Myhill believes it was a strong performance at the King Power Stadium and one that bodes well for the future.
“I think we played well and were probably the better team,” he said. “It was just a shame we couldn’t hold out.
“I’ve got to thank the lads for giving me some magnificent protection when they realised I was struggling.”
