NIGEL Clough says that he will have to patch up his team the best he can for the trip to league leaders Wolves on Saturday.
The Brewers deepening injury list means that the Albion manager could only name six subs at Sheffield United and then lost Jamie Allen to an ankle injury inside the first 15 minutes.
Will Miller is out for the season, defenders John Brayford and Ben Turner are struggling to shake off calf injuries, Lucas Akins picked up a hamstring strain against Bristol City and Luke Murphy and Martin Samuelsen were also sidelined last night, leaving few options for Albion.
And it’s unlikely to improve it time for Saturday.
Clough said: “We will see how Luke Murphy is and Martin Samuelsen with his illness. Martin had viruses at West Ham and they seem to wipe him out. He had to have an operation to take his tonsils out in the summer so we have to be careful with him but he’s certainly under the weather.
“Jamie Allen’s doubtful with his ankle. It’s right on the bone and he will need an x-ray or scan to check that out.
“Ben Turner’s injury has been the most serious where it hasn’t healed as quickly as we thought and has lingered longer than we had hoped. John Brayford has bene in and out as well.
“If you get a spate of the same injury then you look at what you are doing in training and everything but I think it is down to the variety of surfaces we have had to train on recently – going from indoors because of the snow to almost waterlogged. That’s perhaps a factor and also how hard we work in games. In Lucas Akins’ case he has been running tirelessly for six or seven months and there is a bit of fatigue in there.”
Clough can’t even recall Ben Fox from his loan spell at Gateshead as the player has also picked up an injury playing last night.
He said: “We had a chat about it but as he’s done his hamstring there is no point recalling him. We will see him this week and see how serious it is.”