Bilic: Conor on standby to replace KO’d Kieran
KIERAN Gibbs is an injury doubt for Saturday’s visit of Blackburn Rovers after the left-back hobbled off in West Bromwich Albion’s 1-1 draw with Derby County.
Gibbs, who conceded the first Rams’ penalty at Pride Park on Saturday, made it clear to the visiting bench he wouldn’t be able to continue after just 20 minutes.
The former Arsenal defender, who also left the field in the opening-day win at Nottingham Forest, was replaced by Darnell Furlong who, despite being a right-back, filled in on the left until half-time, when Nathan Ferguson switched sides.
Albion head coach Slaven Bilic confirmed Gibbs is still nursing a groin complaint and might not be risked against Tony Mowbray’s Rovers at The Hawthorns. However, he has no qualms about throwing in Conor Townsend, despite the fact he didn’t make the matchday squad at Derby.
“Gibbs’ injury (affected us) because we didn’t have a natural left-back on the bench, which reshuffled us a bit,” Bilic said. “It cut off one of the options from the bench. It isn’t bad but it’s his
problem, that little groin issue. It looks like not a long long one, but we are not sure about Blackburn.
“After that it’s the international break. We’ll try for Blackburn. If not, we have Conor, who every time he played he was top quality.”
Charlie Austin didn’t get onto the pitch at Derby, though he was among the subs.
By Bilic’s own admission, he is Albion’s primary forward, but having completed 76 minutes against Reading the previous week the boss is keen to manage the player amid wariness over a shortage of match fitness.
“Make no mistake, Charlie Austin is our main striker, but we have to manage him before he comes back to full fitness,” he reasoned.
“It was an option to bring him on, and with 20 minutes to go, for me, it was not the case we didn’t have enough players in the box, it was how are we getting the ball in the box?”
Bilic, who received his marching orders for protesting about the officiating against Derby, has been charged by the FA. It is expected the Croatian will not contest the charge and should therefore be free to be in the dugout on Saturday.