Huge blow: Joseph Masi reveals fresh West Brom "nightmare", Ismael will be seething - opinion

West Bromwich Albion have been dealt a huge injury blow regarding Daryl Dike.

In a recent post on Twitter, Joseph Masi claimed that, in Valerien Ismael’s pre-match press conference, the Frenchman revealed that the injury picked up by the Baggies’ £7m January signing in the 3-0 win over Peterborough United last weekend looks set to keep him out of action for around eight weeks – or 11 Championship fixtures.

In his post, the Express & Star journalist said: “Nightmare news that Daryl Dike will be out for the next eight weeks. Set to miss 11 games.”

Considering the fact that Dike was brought into the club this winter in a bid to address Ismael’s distinct lack of a goalscoring number nine, the news that the 21-year-old will be out of action for more than half of West Brom’s remaining Championship fixtures is sure to have left the 46-year-old seething.

Indeed, from Dike’s form while on loan at Barnsley last season, the centre-forward very much appears to be a striker who possesses the goalscoring ability to help fire the Baggies to a top-two finish in the current campaign.

Over his 19 Championship outings for Ismael’s Barnsley side last time out, the £9m-rated hitman scored a highly impressive nine goals for the Tykes – at a rate of one goal every 143 minutes.

For comparison, West Brom’s current backup centre-forward, Jordan Hugill, has scored just one goal over his 20 Championship appearances this season – with the 29-year-old averaging a strike rate of one in every 1003 minutes of second-tier football played.

As such, the news that Dike has been ruled out for such an extended period of time will undoubtedly come as a major blow to Albion’s promotion hopes this season – unless Ismael can bring in a new option at