West Brom defender Kieran Gibbs' set for one-week injury lay-off
Kieran Gibbs is set to be available for Albion over the busy festive period - but the defender will miss tomorrow's derby against Blues with a hamstring problem.
The full-back limped after pulling his hamstring, under no pressure, during the Baggies' 5-1 win over Swansea last weekend.
Gibbs beat the floor in frustration following the injury having only recently returned from a broken toe.
But while the problem kept him out of Wednesday's clash at Wigan, scans have shown the injury isn't too serious.
"He has had a couple of scans and as we said after the injury it didn’t look bad," said head coach Slaven Bilic.
"It’s not bad. You never know but according to scans and the medical team he should be back in one week. "
With the exception of Gibbs, Albion should be at full strength for the trip to St Andrew's tomorrow.
The match will be the first-time Bilic has experienced a West Midlands derby.
And the boss is looking forward to the game.
"It’s a big game," he said.
"It will be a very difficult one, every away game is.
"We have watched them and they are a very aggressive team.
"They are on it, they don’t give you a lot of time on the ball or a lot of space between the lines.
"If you add to that that it’s a derby game also for them, that tells me they are going to be even more aggressive and there’s going to be even less space.
"But, with our quality, we have to find and provoke.
"They will not give us anything for free. We have to earn it, not just with running but with the quality of our team which we have showed many times so far.
"After a performance against Wigan that we are not extremely happy with - but we got a point - it’s good to have these kind of games straight after. "
