Draw speciaists West Bromwich Albion have marginally more encouraging team news ahead of Saturday’s trip to Preston North End.
Carlos Corberan’s Baggies have slipped to eight points off top spot and out of the Championship play-off places afer drawing eight of their past nine games.
Albion have won just once in 11 matches, starting with the 3-2 defeat by Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on 28 September, when they were top of the league.
But they head for Deepdale unbeaten on the road in five games since, including Tuesday’s draw (their sixth in 17 games this season) at high-riding Sunderland.
They also welcome back full-back Darnell Furlong following his one-game suspension for picking up five bookings – and they might also be able to call on centre-back Kyle Bartley for his first start in eight games.
Boss Corberan said Bartley is “in better condition” after coming on at half-time at Sunderland to replace makeshift stand-in Uros Racic.
Albion are also without summer signing Ousmane Diakite (knee) and winger Grady Diangana (calf). And they are still missing defenders Semi Ajayi and Paddy McNair
Ajayi was ruled out on 31 October for four months following surgery on a hamstring injury, while McNair is in the middle of an expected eight-week absence, also with a hamstring injury.
The goal-shy Baggies, who have scored at home just four times this season, are also still without striker Daryl Dike, now not expected to be fit until January at the earliest as he bids to recover from another ruptured Achilles tendon.
Corberan got quite animated at Friday’s press conference when asked about the frustration of some fans, saying he pays attention to neither negativity nor positivity as it would distract from his job – and he also reminded the fans where Albion were when he took over in October 2022 (23rd in the table).
The Preston game will be Corberan’s 103rd in charge of Albion, taking him past his previous best tally of 102, with Huddersfield Town.