West Brom head for the sun - but Mowbray warns it won't be a holiday
West Bromwich Albion head off for warmer climes on Sunday when they take advantage of their free weekend to fly to Spain for a warm weather training camp. However, manager Tony Mowbray has warned his squad are not going for a holiday.
The recent wintry weather has meant Albion have been unable to get down to some serious training, much to Mowbray’s frustration as it has impacted on the rehabilitation of a number of his injured players.
The Albion boss threw in defenders Abdoulaye Meite and Leon Barnett against Newcastle United last weekend with disastrous results and later admitted the pair had only been able to train a couple of times since returning from injury because of the weather.
Striker Jay Simpson is also close to a comeback after a hamstring injury but Mowbray admits his return to action could be delayed unless the 20-year-old gets some serious training.
“There are no grass pitches and because of the injury situation there are six or seven who the medical department don’t want to go into the indoor arenas,” he said. “There has also six or seven away on international duty so it is a big fragmented at the moment.
“It is a little but frustrating but there is no game this weekend and ideally next week we will get some grass to train on and start working towards the Fulham game. We are looking forward to that.
“We aren’t the only team suffering from the weather at the moment. I think last Saturday’s result (the 3-2 defeat to Newcastle) compounds the frustration really because if we had won on Saturday then we would have been sitting in 14th in the league. We wouldn’t have given two hoots about the weather really.
