West Brom have revealed that Chris Brunt is a doubt for their clash with Stoke City on Saturday after suffering a groin injury whilst playing in Northern Ireland’s 1-1 draw against Morocco at Windsor Park last night. The midfielder will be assessed later today to find out the full extent of the injury. Roberto Di Matteo has already declared his irritation at the manner in which the injury was sustained…
“We know that Chris Brunt picked up a groin injury last night and that really annoys me. The others seem to be okay. We’ve just had four games in 12 days – and one of those games was with nine men and put a lot of demands on him. The last thing we needed was for him to go to a midweek international game because the risk of injury increases. Friendlies at this stage of the season don’t make sense to me. He’s coming in today and he’s going to be assessed. At the moment he is a doubt for Saturday’s game.”
With Brunt holding the idyllic combination of both a fairly low transfer value (5.7 in the FPL) and the ability to score decent points, many Fantasy Managers have targeted the Baggies man as the perfect cut-price option to compliment some of their more pricey assets. In addition to his expert left-foot deliveries from both set-pieces and open play, Brunt has displayed the capacity to rake-in Bonus Points, grabbing an impressive 10 in total to this point.
Earlier today Di Matteo admitted that he may have to make some changes to the Baggies’ starting line-up to combat Stoke’s physical presence.
“I’ve been thinking about adapting the team. It’s a possibility getting big players in will affect my thinking.”
We can only speculate on the tweaks that the Italian has in mind, but one possibility concerns the role of Peter Odemwingie. He could well be shifted back to a position on the flank, with Marc-Antoine Fortune, who has had to be content with cameo roles in his last two outings, returning as the lone striker to add his size for the battle at set-plays. Roman Bednar is another option here, although only today there is speculation surrounding his immediate future at the Hawthorns with a possible loan move on the horizon.
Regardless, with Brunt now a possible absentee, the key message for Fantasy Managers is that there is new uncertainty surrounding the West Brom lineup for what looks to be a potentially profitable home fixture.
