Mel also reveals reason behind Sessegnon and Vydra substitutions
PEPE Mel is hopeful Jonas Olsson will be fit to face Manchester City on Monday week – but the defender faces tests tomorrow to assess the full extent of the Achilles injury which forced him off against Tottenham.
The influential centre-back, who could count himself extremely unlucky to concede an own goal for Spurs’ first goal in today’s 3-3 draw, was forced from the field in the 77th minute.
But he now has nine days to recover from the problem before the Baggies make the trip to the Etihad Stadium on Easter Monday (ko 8pm).
“He’s trained this week with some Achilles problems,” said Mel.
“Tomorrow he’ll undergo tests and we hope to have him for Monday week’s game.”
Mel also explained the reason behind substituting goalscorers Stephane Sessegnon and Matej Vydra in the 58th and 72nd minutes respectively of today’s Hawthorns encounter.
“We had to bring Sessegnon off because he had some problems during the week and he was very tired,” added Mel.
“That left us then with Yacob and Dorrans in the middle.
“We also had the speed of Vydra but the same thing also happened with him – he got tired.”