Although it seems fairly clear that Saturday’s game at St James’ Park WILL go ahead, we’ve been left to guess just who will be fit and available to feature against the Baggies.
The Telegraph revealed yesterday that up to 12 senior players look set to miss out via the mass COVID outbreak, however there are TWO first-team stars who appear to be available.
The first looks to be Isaac Hayden.
Steve Bruce stated before the Palace game that THREE unnamed players were to be sidelined at Selhurst Park due to self-isolation protocols. That 10 day quarantine has now elapsed, and it’s believed that a member of that ‘mystery’ trio missing from our 0-2 win a fortnight ago was Isaac Hayden – which does add up given he wasn’t injured yet was nowhere to be seen that night.
So, we can only assume our tough tackling midfielder will be one of few who’ll be fine for Saturday’s game, and it seems another set to start against the Baggies is Callum Wilson.
This one is a little more straight forward, with the striker confirming in an Instagram post last night that it was “good to be back training with the lads”.
It comes after those who’d tested negative trained in small groups at the Benton base for the first time in 13 days yesterday, so it seems he’s one of the lucky ones!
It’s just as well too, with Wilson our talisman, top scorer on seven goals and key man capable of punishing a leaky West Brom defence who shipped five against Palace last weekend.
As for everyone else, it’s anybody’s guess!
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