Injured Phillips out of derby

Kevin Phillips" class="imageframe alignright" height="130" src="http://www.shropshirestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/albion.jpg" width="175"/>West Brom's Kevin Phillips is out of the Black Country derby later this month. The scourge of Wolves in last season's five match derby series is waiting to see if he will need knee surgery after being stretchered off against Sheffield Wednesday this week.

The Baggies must wait another fortnight before knowing exactly how much football their evergreen 34-year-old forward will miss this season.

But manager Tony Mowbray is now plan for the immediate future without Phillips, a player who celebrated his 50th start for the Baggies on Wednesday by scoring his 32nd goal and his 10th of the season.

The news rules out the forward who scored four times against Mick McCarthy's men last season - including a deadly brace at Molineux that tipped the balance of the play off first leg in Albion's favour. He also scored two at Molineux for Southampton in the doomed Premiership adventure in 2003/4.

The former England man underwent a scan yesterday and Mowbray said: "The results showed Kevin has suffered some damage to his left knee.

"However, no-one can predict how long Kevin will be out, or whether he will require surgery, until the knee has had chance to settle down properly.

"That usually takes around two weeks. Our main priority is looking after Kevin.

"As I've stated previously, he's as good a professional as I've worked with and he was absolutely flying.

"We've ruled him out of our thoughts for the time being but its pointless speculating on how long he will be out until we've got the full facts.

"We'll have a clearer picture in two weeks' time."

But behind the scenes, initial optimism for Phillips's long-term prognosis has given way to deep concern that he faces a lengthy absence.