West Bromwich Albion manager Steve Bruce is considering bringing his £7million striker back into contention for Saturday's trip to Bristol City.
Daryl Dike, a January signing from Orlando City, sustained a hamstring injury on his second Baggies appearance while ex-boss Valerien Ismael was in charge. Following his injury, West Brom moved quickly to find a replacement and landed Andy Carroll on a free transfer until the end of the season.
Bruce has yet to work with Dike on the pitch but his first opportunity could be against the Robins on Saturday although he is almost certain to feature from the substitute bench if he does earn some minutes.
Reported by the Express and Star, Bruce said: "We play Nottingham Forest at The Hawthorns on Monday in the under-23s so maybe that’s the game for Dike.
"He might be involved at Bristol City at the weekend. But I’ve got that in my mind to play him on Monday night, for an hour at least, to see how he gets on there."
The 21-year-old arrived at The Hawthorns with high expectations following his price-tag after an outstanding second half to the 2020/21 season in which he helped fire unfashionable Barnsley into the play-offs, scoring an impressive nine goals in 21 appearances before heading back to Orlando where he found the net 11 times in 19 games.
West Brom arrive into the match with evidence that Bruce has started to turn around their previous dreadful run of form that saw them win just one game in 12 matches - a victory over rock-bottom Peterborough. They have now gone three matches without defeat, including a 1-0 victory over Championship leaders Fulham on Tuesday.
City manager Nigel Pearson could be without nine players likely to be unavailable for the weekend contest. Joe Williams and Alex Scott are major doubts after coming off injured in the defeat against Barnsley.
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