West Brom's forgotten men will return from injury in pre-season

Kean Bryan is making good progress in his recovery from an anterior cruciate ligament injury which wrecked his first season at West Bromwich Albion - and he is on track to return in the summer for pre-season.

Bryan was brought into the club last autumn as a short-term replacement for injured Dara O’Shea, but he himself suffered a serious set-back in his first start in an Albion shirt, back in November when Albion edged out Hull City at The Hawthorns. In total, Bryan has played just 49 minutes of football for Albion spanning three appearances.

While Albion have been able to deal with his absence because of the quantity of centre halves at their disposal, and they have since welcomed O’Shea back into the fold, Bryan - who is something of a forgotten man at The Hawthorns - is working hard to ensure that he secures a full return to fitness after his rehabilitation, hopefully in time for the new campaign.

“That’s a hard thing to deal with, especially when you’re a new player at a club and you do your ACL,” Bruce pointed out. “I spoke to him the other day - his knee resembles a knee again, which three months ago it didn’t. He’s working extremely hard. It’s a big summer for him, too. He’s on track.

“I think it’s a crucial time, pre-season. Every club have had a struggle with it, because of the pandemic.”

Another player who Albion won’t be seeing again this term is striker Kenneth Zohore. In truth, the Dane has endured a pretty miserable campaign after being bombed out by Valerien Ismael - who was not the first Albion manager to do so during his underwhelming three years at the club.

Zohore, who signed for £8m from Cardiff City in the summer of 2019 has done extremely little in the time that has elapsed since to suggest he was