West Brom boss Sam Allardyce: Matt Phillips has impressed in coronavirus comeback

Phillips has endured a frustrating 12 months at The Hawthorns with the winger having been in and out of the team.

But he has now started Albion’s last four games and has particularly impressed in the last three. And Allardyce believes his displays are even more impressive when you take into account how unwell the 29-year-old became after testing positive for coronavirus back in January.

“Matt had Covid pretty bad – when he arrived back we saw the physical impact on him,” the boss said.

“We had to wait patiently but Matt has worked extremely hard to get himself back to peak condition.

“We look now at his physical output and it has gone through the roof compared to a few weeks ago when he was coming back from Covid.

“Matt’s situation has been a real eye-opener for me.

“I think other players have experienced Covid but not as bad as Matt did.

“But he has come storming back – his performances have been excellent.”

Phillips featured in the games against Man City and Fulham towards the end of January. But in hindsight, Allardyce said the winger should have had more time.

“Perhaps I threw him back into the mix too quickly, because he said he was fit, said he felt alright and he wanted to get back in,” the boss continued.

“Perhaps it was my mistake by throwing him in a bit too early.

“We then realised the situation, took him back out and brought him back slowly.

“He got the all-clear from Covid but there was a lack of knowledge about the virus worldwide.

“We cannot know until we actually get an experience of it what somebody is facing.”

Allardyce says the challenge for Phillips now is to starting adding goals to his game – with the Baggies having scored just one in their last four games.

“Sharing the goals out is most important and that is the one area Matt (Phillips), Conor (Gallagher), Ainsley (Maitland-Niles), Matheus (Pereira) and Mbaye (Diagne), have to improve, they have all got to get their goal tally up,” the boss added.

“Our performances have been good. They need to be the ones that start putting the icing on the cake.”