Yahoo News Josh Maja update as Carlos Corberan makes West Brom call without Thomas-Asante
Josh Maja will be included in the West Bromwich Albion squad when they travel to Leicester City for Saturday's 12.30pm kick-off - but the returning forward isn't yet in a position where Carlos Corberan can call on him from the start of a competitive game. Maja enjoyed a 15-minute run-out recently in the win over Rotherham United and, last Friday, completed an hour for the under 21s at Manchester City.
With Brandon Thomas-Asante set to sit out this weekend's meeting at the King Power Stadium through suspension, following his red card in the 1-0 defeat to Sunderland last Saturday, Corberan will be able to welcome Maja into the fold again having made his comeback from a four-month injury lay-off after suffering ankle ligament damage in the defeat to the Black Cats in December.
Maja, though, must be handled carefully after two serious injury set-backs in what is his first season at The Hawthorns, and Corberan will therefore turn to one of his attacking alternatives to lead the line, as has often been the case in the absence of Maja, Daryl Dike and, to a lesser extent, Thomas-Asante at various points throughout the campaign.
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"Very positive," Corberan reflected on Maja's progress. "It was necessary for him to play these minutes with the B team. It was in a different team, against a different team, but physically he had a very strong previous week which can help him to be close to his level. How long will it take for him to achieve his level? It'll depend on the game exposure and the number of training we do. Now we have full weeks between games will increase the training times.
"We need to understand, though, how many weeks he has been out, how many months. It wasn't just the last injury, it was the previous injury too. We cannot expect from Maja what we might have expected if he had not been injured. It'll depend on the game. If you ask me if he can start, I'd say no. Then, how many minutes from the bench? It'll depend, understanding the type of game we're going to play. Physically he's not at the level to start the game."
Corberan will turn to captain Jed Wallace, loanee Andreas Weimann or another of his attacking options to play through the middle - Grady Diangana has recently displaced John Swift as the club's first choice number ten at the moment but both could potentially be utilised as the Baggies look to take another step towards confirming their place in the play-offs.
All of the above have been given a couple of days' rest this past week. After a testing few weeks since the March international break, in which games have come thick and fast for his players, Corberan took advice from the club's sports science staff and permitted breathers for the squad.
"Always you can prepare in more detail when you have a full week," he added. "After the previously very demanding week of games, or in the previous two weeks because we played five games, we used the beginning of the week - Sunday and Monday - to have two days off. For the players mentally and physically there was a need.
"There was advice to, and I was following it because it was necessary. After, we have trained the rest of the week. You need to manage the number of drills you can do, the time spent on the training pitch. It is better, of course, to prepare having more days.
"It was necessary to stop a little bit. After the international break, it's been very demanding. In the international break, some players were playing for their national teams - for example, Mikey Johnston. He was playing 90 minutes against Bristol City, then playing with the national team. He came back and just two days later he was playing on the Friday. You don't stop and you don't have the possibility to decrease a little bit."
