Pearson Optimistic About Captain's Fitness

The Jamaican international has played in all nine of the Foxes’ Barclays Premier League fixtures so far this season and appeared to have taken a knock in the 2-0 defeat to Swansea City last weekend.
But certain he will be available to face the Baggies, Pearson believes the centre-half is a player that keeps himself in good condition during a busy schedule of games.
“I’m not concerned about Wes,” said Pearson. “He will be training tomorrow and we will go again. He is an experienced player and manages himself well.
“He’s still been working, Wes’ idea of not training is different to others, and he’ll be fine. He’s an important player for us and it is about managing players through a hectic season.
“We’ll be hitting the third group of international fixtures in a couple of weeks’ time and he’ll be involved in that again.”
While Matt Upson continues his recovery from a foot injury and Zoumana Bakayogo remains side-lined with his knee problem, Ben Hamer’s initial injury assessment has turned out to be better than first thought, dislocating his finger in training rather than breaking it.
“Ben’s been assessed and will be with the same situation with his dressings for another week to allow it to fully heal,” said Pearson. “It was potentially a nasty one but although it was a compound situation it was a dislocation rather than a break. It does not simplify it but it’s a better situation than it could have been.
“It will be a matter of weeks but I do not see too much mileage in putting a timescale on there. Injuries are what they are. There are certain guidelines in terms of how long injuries take to clear up but every case is slightly different. Hopefully it won’t be too long.
“I’ve not got any problems that will cause any concern. We may have players who have not trained on certain days this week but it’s not a problem.”
Four first-teamers were involved in the Development Squad’s 6-2 win over Manchester City at King Power Stadium on Monday, with Anthony Knockaert, Danny Simpson, Nick Powell and Tom Lawrence all in action.
Admitting that every senior player has the chance to make it into his squad for the weekend, Pearson continued: “We’ve spoken about the fact we still do have the vast majority of our first team squad available and unfortunately that means you leave four or five players behind for an away trip.
“They are in contention but as always it’s about finding the right formula. If you couple the performance last week and the result on Monday, it may have a bigger swing in terms of the thinking behind putting together the right squad for this game.
“It still remains a positive thing to have so many players available knowing that we do have options. There will always be a positive out of a result like last week and that is to remind the players that there is competition for places and that there will be opportunities for other players on the back of a performance where we felt we were under-par.”