Albion youngsters will help in Premier League run-in

Academy manager John Morling revealed some under-23s are training with the senior squad in the run-up to the restart.

He added “a couple” more remain on standby.

Many of Albion’s leading under-23s are on loan but those who are available could get a chance to support a senior squad facing a tough run-in after three months out of action.

Equally, they can help keep intensity high at training or provide numbers for important in-house fixtures.

Morling said: “Obviously you wouldn’t want any injuries to any players once we get started but some of the younger players will be ready.

“If any opportunities do arise, then that’s a positive and I’m sure they’ll be chomping at the bit ready to take it.

“They’ve got to be ready to take it whenever it comes along.”

Albion are looking at playing some sort of warm-up fixtures before meeting Arsenal three weeks from now.

Whether that has to be among themselves remains to be seen.

This is how the run-in looks for the bottom six

Morling believes academies will be even more important as the financial impact of the Covid-related shutdown starts to hit.

He said: “I think if you ask all the youth developers around the country, that would be brilliant because you want the players to get opportunities.

“Whether it’s at our club or other clubs under a new loan system, then you’d welcome any opportunity for players to progress.

“It will be a bit of pressure on us to keep providing players that are at first team level but that’s what you want. You’d have that all day.

“It’s a good pressure to have, one that we’ve done all right last year and we’ve got to keep building on that next year so we can get a good free-flowing set number of players coming through to the first team.”

Technical director Dan Ashworth and head coach Graham Potter are in talks with out-of-contract senior players such as Ezequiel Schelotto about extending deals until the end of the season rather than the usual June 30 expiry,