The 4 players set to miss West Brom v Blackburn Rovers | OneFootball

A look at the four players that are missing through injury as West Bromwich Albion take on Blackburn Rovers on the opening day.

West Bromwich Albion kick off their 2025/26 Championship campaign with the visit of a former manager on the opening day, as Valerien Ismael’s Blackburn Rovers go to The Hawthorns.

West Brom ended up drifting away from the top six and the play-off places last season, and that saw Tony Mowbray depart the club with a couple of games of the campaign to go.

The former Blackburn manager has now been replaced by Ryan Mason, who is embarking upon his first full-time managerial role, having previously been a part of Ange Postecoglou’s coaching staff at Tottenham Hotspur.

Ismael, himself, had a very tough time of it at West Brom, and the start to his career at Ewood Park was not much better, as he replaced the surprise departee John Eustace.

However, he eventually improved the Lancastrians a fair bit and had them just missing out on the top six on the final day of the campaign, after an excellent end to the season.

Both sides will have confidence heading into the season that they can once again emerge as promotion contenders, but they don’t quite have everyone set and ready to go at the start of the campaign.

Sidnei Tavares, Blackburn’s marquee addition from Moreirense this summer, has fought back from an injury sustained early in pre-season, whilst Josh Maja also appears to have avoided a re-occurrence of his own injury woes.

However, both clubs are dealing with a couple of crucial absentees for the opening day, and here is a list of those that will be sidelined this weekend.

Tammer Bany

In a club statement, West Brom recently confirmed that attacking midfielder Tammer Bany would be missing from the start of the season due to a hamstring injury.

The Danish attacker joined the Baggies in the January transfer window from Randers, but he has gone on to make just four Championship appearances for Albion thus far, and has now suffered a setback.

Daryl Dike

Another man familiar with setbacks is Daryl Dike who, in the same club statement, is confirmed as having sustained a thigh injury that will rule him out until at least the September international break.

The United States international was a £7 million signing for the Baggies in January 2022, but he has gone on to make just over 40 appearances due to persistent injury issues.

Hayden Carter

During their pre-season clash with Accrington Stanley last month, it was suggested that Hayden Carter had been substituted for precautionary reasons.

However, the young centre-back had instead sustained a hamstring injury that was to see him sidelined for the next four to six weeks, meaning he misses the start of the campaign.

Aynsley Pears

Goalkeeper Aynsley Pears has often been in and out of the Blackburn eleven, but he established himself as number one at Ewood Park last season.

He will, though, miss the start of this campaign, with the former Middlesbrough shot-stopper having sustained an Achilles injury that has seen him miss their last couple of friendlies against Elche and NEC Nijmegen.