Irvine hopeful over Foster injury

05 September 2014 10:46

West Brom manager Alan Irvine is hopeful goalkeeper Ben Foster will get the all-clear to return to action early next week.

The 31-year-old left England's squad before Wednesday's friendly win over Norway after sustaining a thumb injury in training.

He will not be reassessed until Monday, which would seemingly rule him out of rejoining Roy Hodgson's squad for their opening Euro 2016 qualifier in Switzerland.

"He's had a little bit of a problem with his thumb during pre-season but nothing we haven't been able to manage," Irvine told wba.co.uk.

"He just got it jarred. He went to catch the ball, secured it with his left hand but it then ricocheted off and hit down on the top of his thumb. That's exactly the movement he wouldn't have wanted.

"We don't feel there's a need to do anything drastic at this particular moment.

"We are hoping that when he's assessed again on Monday he will be fine.

"There isn't a lot of swelling there, there's not a lot of bleeding, we don't believe it's a major injury or a big problem."

Back-up goalkeeper Boaz Myhill featured in last week's Capital One Cup victory against Oxford but has not started a league match since December. However, Irvine has no concerns if he has to call on Foster's deputy to face Everton a week on Saturday.

"Boaz is a Premier League goalkeeper, he has proven that many times," he added.

"He stood in for Ben last year and did extremely well. I am really comfortable with him.

"We are lucky to have two of them because it's not easy to keep two top goalkeepers happy. We are very lucky to have such good back-up."

Irvine is also hopeful midfielder Graham Dorrans will recover quickly having pulled out of Scotland's squad with an injury.

"Graham is hoping that three or four days off it and it will settle down," he said.

"There's not really an awful lot you can do to treat it because of what it is and where it is.

"It's a bruise but it's not like a bruise somewhere you don't notice it unless it gets hit, it's a bruise you notice every time you take a step.

"I will be surprised if he has still got problems with that kind of injury by that time (Everton fixture). I would expect that would have settled down in time.

"Hopefully he will be back training the early part of next week."

Source: PA