MORRISON FIT TO FLY AGAIN
West BROM’s James Morrison believes he has finally put a nightmare 14 months behind him, after revealing he broke down four times in trying to recover from an achilles tendon injury that threatened his career.
the 32-year- old scotland international missed all but a handful of games as the Baggies plummeted out of the Premier League last season. But he was at his sparkling best in Albion’s 4-1 demolition of Leeds United.
‘I felt good,’ he said. ‘this time last year I was in a bad hole and I’ll probably just give myself a pat on the back.
‘I’ve missed coming off the pitch with a win and feeling knackered. You can pay me all the money in the world, but you can’t replace that.
‘I broke down four times and you think, “Am I ever going to get back, is this it?” I’m no spring chicken. I just kept believing and worked hard and had good family around me to keep pushing me.’
Morrison still has psychological barriers to overcome. ‘I’m not just trying to make it up for a bit of sympathy,’ he said. ‘the struggles that you go through with a serious injury are massive. Doubts creep into you. Can you still do it? I still deal with that doubt now. so this is a real boost.’
Morrison said West Brom’s attack of Jay Rodriguez, Dwight Gayle, Matt Phillips, Harvey Barnes and Hal Robson-Kanu reminds him of the club’s blistering strike-force from 11 years ago when they won the Championship. Of that quintet, only Rodriguez failed to score here. ‘I always go back to the first season we were here,’ said Morrison. ‘We had four good strikers in Ishmail Miller, Kevin Phillips, Roman Bednar, Luke Moore came in towards the end and Craig Beattie popped up as well with a few last-minute goals.
‘they all chipped in with lots of goals and was one of the reasons why we got promoted in the end.
‘We’ve got 37 goals in 17 games. It’s a great stat and we’ve got to keep going and when the chances come in this league you’ve got to take them.
‘Anyone who looks at us will be scared when we are on our A-game.
‘It just shows we are fighting to get back into the Premier League.’
Leeds wing back Barry Douglas has apologised for exchanging words with the Leeds bench after being taken off. ‘It was unprofessional of me, I was just disappointed at the score and emotions got the better of me,’ he said.
the defeat stopped Leeds going top of the Championship, but their playmaker Pablo Hernandez — who scored a late consolation — insisted they must not change their style.
‘When you lose, you need to keep calm, watch the game again and try to learn so as not to repeat the mistakes,’ he said.
‘We know that two weeks ago we weren’t the best team in the world and we know now we’re not the worst.’