Albion head into a vital period of fixtures in decent shape in terms of injuries.

At the moment the only players, who are out for an extended period are Dan Burn and Jose Izquierdo.

But teams in and around them are not faring as well - and that could be significant ahead of two games in four or five days.

The worst hit on the injury front are Newcastle.

They have had 13 players out injured, but eight of them are expected to do be due back in league action in the next four days.

This will include Jonjo Shelvey, Fabian Schar, Yoshinori Muto, DeAndre Yedlin, Ki Sung-Yeung, Allan Saint-Maximin Jamaal Lascelles and Joelinton.

Joelinton scored last night for Newcastle in their 4-1 win over Rochdale in the FA Cup, while Shelvey came off the bench in the 70th minute.

Despite these players returning, Newcastle will still be without Javi Manquillo (hamstring strain), Jack Colback (knee injury), Emil Krath (other), Paul Dummett (hamstring strain) and Dwight Gayle (thigh).

Colback will be out for a while with Steve Bruce saying the following on January 3: “He trained and slipped and fell and damaged his medial ligament in his knee a week ago. He is in a brace for the next six to eight weeks.”

Yesterday Bruce gave an update on Gayle, saying: “The injury was hanging for a little while, that’s why he missed the game away at Rochdale as a precaution, but he trained all week. Unfortunately he felt something.”

Bournemouth, who Albion visit on Tuesday, are not far behind in terms of injury woes.

They have ten players out injured at the moment. However, Lloyd Kelly, Aaron Ramsdale and Jefferson Lerma could well be back to face the Seagulls.

However, they are likely to be without Arnaut Danjuma Groeneveld (ankle), Junior Stanislas (calf), Charlie Daniels (knee), Josh King (hamstring), Jack Stacey (hamstring), David Brooks (ankle) and Chris Mepham (knee) for quite a while.

King and Stacey have not featured since the 2-0 defeat at the Amex on December 28.

Eddie Howe said on New Year’s Day he expected them to be out for about five to six weeks.

The Cherries boss added: “They’ve got very similar injuries. Both hamstring, both been given the same grade so a massive, massive blow.”

Mepham will miss a good part of the rest of the season, if not all of it, with a “significant” knee injury, which will require surgery.

Aston Villa, who visit the Amex on Saturday, are also struggling with injuries.

They have recently suffered a blow with both Tom Heaton and Wesley being ruled out for the rest of the season with cruciate ligaments injuries suffered in the 2-1 win over Burnley.

Pepe Reina joined on loan from Milan on Monday and is set to make his debut at the Amex.

They are also looking for a striker with Keinan Davis (thigh) and Jonathan Kodija, as well as Wesley, missing.

They are without John McGinn (heal), who was a handful in the reverse fixture and boss Dean Smith expects him to be out until late March.

Matt Targett (thigh) and Jed Steer (calf) could also miss the clash with Albion.

Watford, who are on a great run of form and visit the Amex at the start of February, have six players missing.

These are Danny Welbeck (thigh), Tom Cleverly (calf), Daryl Janmaat (knee), Will Hughes (groin) and Sebastian Prodl (calf) and all of them may well miss the game against Albion.

West Ham, who Albion travel to on February 1, have six players out.

They are Felipe Anderson (lower back), Michail Antonio (hamstring), Lukasz Fabianski (thigh), Jack Wilshire (groin), Ryan Federicks (thigh) and Andriy Yarmolenko (thigh).

However, they hope all of them will hopefully be back by the time Albion visit.

Burnley who have lost their last four games in the league are currently missing Jay Rodriguez (illness), Robbie Brady (calf), Johann Berg Gudmundsson (hamstring) and ex-Albion striker Ashley Barnes (groin).

Clarets boss Sean Dyche said the club “were waiting to find out more” about Barnes after he missed Saturday’s defeat at Chelsea.

Bottom-placed Norwich, are missing Timm Klose (knee), Josip Drmic (thigh), Ben Godfrey (thigh), Teemu Puki (thigh) and Grant Hanley.