West Bromwich Albion defender Dara O'Shea took to Twitter last night to thank the club's fans for the support that he has received since fracturing his ankle earlier this month.

The defender suffered this setback during the Republic of Ireland's 2-1 defeat to Portugal as he was forced to limp off in the first-half of this World Cup qualifier.

As confirmed by the club's official website, O'Shea is now set to be out of action for six months due to the severity of his issue.

The 22-year-old, who also suffered ligament damage against Portugal, had an operation yesterday to rectify the injury.

Now set for a long period of rehabilitation, O'Shea will be hoping that West Brom will be able to push on in his absence.

Set to face Derby County this evening, the Baggies could extend their advantage at the top of the Championship standings by securing all three points in this clash.

Cedric Kipre may be in line to feature at centre-back for West Brom at The Hawthorns after being drafted in as a replacement for O'Shea in last Saturday's meeting with Millwall.

 

 

After the club's Twitter account shared an image of O'Shea following his operation, the defender reacted on the social media platform by sending a message to the club's fans.

O'Shea posted: "Thank you for the support Baggies."

The Verdict

When you consider just how impressive O'Shea was during the opening weeks of the season, West Brom would have been devastated to see him suffer such a serious injury.

As well as averaging a club-high WhoScored match rating of 7.73 in the Championship, the defender managed to produce 2.4 tackles and 2.2 interceptions per game.

Having opted to react to O'Shea's setback by signing Kean Bryan on a free transfer, it will be intriguing to see whether West Brom manager Valerien Ismael is able to guide his side to a relative amount of success without one of his key players.

The Frenchman will need the likes of Bryan, Semi Ajayi, Kipre, Kyle Bartley and Matt Clarke to step up to the plate if the Baggies are to push on in the coming months.