Albion have been dealt a double injury blow with the news that Chris Brunt and Abdoulaye Meite are set for a spell on the sidelines after scans yesterday proved initial fears correct. The two have both been ruled out of Saturday's game at The Riverside Stadium - Brunt's former club - and could be out for up to a month with respective hamstring and calf problems.
"Brunt has a grade one strain of his hamstring and will be out for three to four weeks. We haven't yet had the scan results read for Meite but I would anticipate it being two weeks and a bit more," a downbeat Tony Mowbray said.
"He went through a week's training last week and came through it with flying colours after the same sort of injury.
"That's the mystery for us - that it went in the warm-up, which is miles less intense than training.
"Something needs looking at because it wasn't as if we gambled on him and threw him in.
"He trained every day and he came in on his day off and did intense one-on-one training just so he was ready for the match.
"It was a big disappointment for us.
"It's a blow to us losing Meite.
"But we've still got three centre-halves and we'll pick two to go with and try and do what we do."