West Brom hopeful of Brandon Thomas-Asante return for Cardiff City clash

The seven-goal top scorer missed his third successive match over the weekend owing to a hamstring issue as Carlos Corberan’s side edged past the Terriers 1-0.

Thomas-Asante, last summer’s recruit from League Two outfit Salford, did return to training at the back end of last week leaving head coach Corberan positive of his involvement against Huddersfield, but the Spaniard conceded after his side’s narrow win the striker was not quite ready.

“Yes (he was close) but he didn’t feel enough confidence to compete 100 per cent,” Corberan said. “Two days before he was running 90 per cent and he was fine but he didn’t expose himself to 100 per cent.

“When you are playing a football game you cannot only know you are 90 per cent, you need to know at 100 per cent you are going to be ready to do it.”

Thomas-Asante has missed clashes at Hull, the latest in a series of away defeats, and the back-to-back 1-0 successes at The Hawthorns over the Championship’s bottom two Wigan and Huddersfield.

The striker trained with fitness coaches on Saturday prior to the game and with sessions to come today and tomorrow Corberan is hopeful to have his services to call on in south Wales this week.

“Yes I think so, now he trained (Saturday), he will rest (Sunday) and he has two days more to make the decision to involve him. We have three trainings, the one he did today, the most important one, then Monday and the preparation of the game (Tuesday).”

Thomas-Asante’s fortnight-long absence has placed more emphasis on forward colleague Daryl Dike to stand up to a busy schedule.

With no other natural senior centre-forward options, Dike has completed three 90 minutes in a big step forward in his fitness levels following two lengthy muscle lay-offs as an Albion man.

Saturday’s surprise inclusion in Corberan’s starting XI was utility man Adam Reach.

The 30-year-old started a league game for just the second time this term, and first since October. He initially lined up on the left of an attacking trio behind Dike before spending large periods on the right flank having swapped with Jed Wallace.

Reach, who might have left for Wigan in January, put in a handy shift with some useful delivery from open play and set-pieces.

“There were two reasons on the decision to play with him, we’re in one very demanding period of games and for me Reach has a level of energy we need to use,” Corberan said. “You can use from the bench or can use from the beginning, he’s one player that has some physical values that are not easy to achieve.

“Then, watching the opponent and their man-marking, I was thinking it was important to have one left-footed winger, to play someone who with their feet can protect the ball better.

“For me Reach helped with this, and Wallace helped with this, when you play against man-marking and you have natural (footed) players you expose more of the ball, when you play the opposite side you can protect more of the ball, that was the plus of Reach and the momentum he created.

“He is training with high momentum always to be in the first XI.”