Baggies eye Clement return
West Brom hope central defender Neil Clement will be back available for the crunch home relegation meeting with Sunderland on January 21 as manager Bryan Robson closes in on the signature of Ugo Ehiogu from Middlesbrough.
Clement, who has formed an impressive partnership with Curtis Davies, underwent surgery after fracturing a cheekbone in last Monday’s Barclays Premiership clash with Aston Villa at The Hawthorns.
The former Chelsea player was unavailable for Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Reading in the FA Cup and assistant boss Nigel Pearson is predicting he will be on the sidelines for another fortnight.
But the need to rush Clement back into action will be less urgent if Ehiogu completes his move from the Riverside Stadium after holding further talks with Albion.
Pearson confirmed: “Neil has had a fairly straightforward operation after fracturing his cheekbone in the first half against Aston Villa and should be available in probably about a fortnight’s time.”
But as for commenting on signing Ehiogu he would only say: “There may have been an official statement from Middlesbrough but there won’t be any statements from us until anything is concrete.”
Robson has identified a centre-back and a striker as his main priorities in the January transfer window and he is also being strongly linked with another Boro player in Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
Albion have a crucial run of winnable looking games against Wigan, Sunderland, Charlton, Blackburn, Fulham and Middlesbrough in the next two months.
And Pearson insisted there will be no hangover from the disappointing performance against Reading, who deserved a replay despite fielding a weakened side.
He said: “We are not happy with the way we performed against Reading but there will be no hangover from that. We will move on.
“We’ve got some very important games coming up and, when we come back in, it will be back to business and being as positive as possible.”
