"Wonderful" West Brom ace set for 1st appearance under Mowbray vs Millwall

A “wonderful” West Brom player could return to the team to face Millwall this weekend, according to an update from reliable journalist Lewis Cox.

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Tony Mowbray is now five games into his second stint as Baggies manager, winning twice and losing three times, which hasn’t necessarily been the ideal start to life back in charge at the Hawthorns.

West Brom are still sitting pretty in sixth place in the Championship, however, leaving them in the playoff positions, as they look to secure a return to the Premier League in the coming months.

Last weekend’s dramatic late 2-1 win at home to Sheffield Wednesday felt big in the promotion battle, with Jayson Molumby netting in the dying seconds against their rivals, but a 2-0 home defeat to Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday evening acted as a reality check for Mowbray and his side.

On Saturday afternoon, West Brom head to Millwall for another important game, with the south London side in 14th place currently, but winning three of their last four league matches, highlighting their own good form.

“Wonderful” West Brom ace could face Millwall

According to The Express & Star‘s Cox, West Brom defender Semi Ajayi could “maybe” return from injury for the trip to Millwall, in what would be the 31-year-old’s first appearance under Mowbray, who has called his player “wonderful”.

Having Ajayi back for the weekend action would be a big boost for the Baggies – he has not featured since the end of October, following nearly a four-month absence.

The Nigerian was a key figure earlier in the campaign, starting 12 Championship matches and averaging 2.3 aerial duel wins and two clearances per game, and Mowbray hailed him and Daryl Dike after his return for West Brom’s Under-21s earlier this week.

“It was nice to see Semi who has had a shorter-term injury but I thought the pair was excellent and certainly their attitude in the training session on Sunday and in the game was an example to all young players.”

Ajayi is now such an experienced player, racking up 174 games for the Baggies, not to mention winning 39 caps for Nigeria at international level. The centre-back’s know-how is going to be so important between now and the end of the campaign, as the matches become more and more important by the week.

It is clearly going to take time for him for get back to full match sharpness, following such a lengthy spell out of the team, but once he is fully full again, it would be a surprise if he wasn’t a regular starter under Mowbray.

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It would be a big surprise to see Ajayi thrown straight back into West Brom’s starting lineup for the Millwall game, but a place in the matchday squad would be a significant step in the right direction – depending on how the match is going, a cameo role could be ideal.