West Bromwich Albion manager Alan Pardew has insisted Daniel Sturridge has suffered only a minor injury setback during Monday’s 3-0 Premier League defeat at the hands of Chelsea. The England international has been keen to impress against his former employers at Stamford Bridge, but his appearance was short lived after he was substituted after just four minutes with a tight hamstring.
Shortly after the game, Pardew appeared to dismiss the thought of a serious injury to Sturridge, and he is hoping to have the striker back on the playing field in a fortnight’s time, he said: “We need him up and running as it’s goals we’ve struggled with. He felt his hamstring after a 60m sprint in the first moments of the game.
“We’ll have to nurse him. He won’t play next week but hopefully the week after. There have been so many drawn games we should have won, and losing Daniel Sturridge after three minutes was a blow in itself. If we can get two or three wins in our next group of games we can put pressure on the other teams.”
Goals have been a major concern for the Baggies over the course of the season, and they now find themselves with a distinct possibility of dropping down to the Championship with a seven-point gap between them and 17th-placed Huddersfield Town.
Despite the setback, Pardew was pleased to have the likes of Kieran Gibbs and Jonny Evans back in the mix after suffering injuries during the FA Cup win over Liverpool last month, and the next couple of weeks could decide their fate with games against Watford, Huddersfield Town, and Bournemouth coming up.
With Sturridge injured, Pardew will once again have to rely on the services of Salomon Rondon and Jay Rodriguez in the frontline, though the former could yet to receive a ban for an alleged use of racist language towards Brighton & Hove Albion defender Gaetan Bong in January.