John Eustace has revealed that Rhian Brewster missed out on Derby County‘s win over West Bromwich Albion due to injury.
The former Sheffield United man made the switch to Pride Park this summer on a free transfer following the expiration of his contract in Yorkshire, and has had a promising but brief start to life with the Rams, scoring against Ipswich Town in one of three appearances made so far. However, the 2019 Champions League winner is out of action, having been absent from the squad against West Brom.
Injury Concern Revealed
Brewster’s absence handed a debut to Ben Brereton Diaz, who joined Derby late in the summer transfer window on loan from Southampton, who was later subbed out for Patrick Agyemang, who assisted Andi Weimann’s winner over the West Midlands outfit to hand Eustace’s side their first win of the season and send them up to 19th in the league. However, it raised questions as to where Brewster was, which were answered by the former Blackburn Rovers boss following the game.
Speaking to Derbyshire Live, Eustace said:
“Unfortunately, Rhian on Thursday just had a slight tweak to his groin, which was a real blow to us.
“Obviously you saw his performance at Ipswich last week, he was sensational and it gives us a different kind of balance to the team, it allows us to do a couple more things.
“He’s going to be a loss unfortunately but it’s part of Championship football.
“If it’s two or three weeks, then that’s brilliant. It gave a couple of others the opportunities today.”
Brewster has had a bad streak of luck when it comes to injuries, many of which blighted his career at Bramall Lane. He was forced out of seven matches for the Blades last season, while repeated hamstring injuries had kept him out of close to over 100 further matches for Sheffield United.
Writers’ View
Hopefully, this is a short-term absence for Rhian Brewster as nobody wants to see a repeat of his injury issues seen in recent years. He has had a good start to life in Derby with a goal against Ipswich Town in his first Championship start. A timeframe of a couple of weeks would likely see him miss out until the October international break, perhaps returning for their match against Charlton Athletic at the end of this month. However, squad-wise, it is not a crucial blow for County as they have plenty of cover in the attacking midfield and wide roles, with Patrick Agyemang and Andi Weimann both coming off of the bench to win the game for John Eustace against West Brom.
