West Brom face anxious wait over Jonny Evans fitness ahead of Manchester United test

West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis is unsure if Jonny Evans will be fit to return from injury for Saturday's (17 December) Premier League visit of his former club Manchester United. The Northern Ireland international was ruled out of the Salomon Rondon-inspired 3-0 home victory over relegation-threatened Swansea City on Wednesday evening due to a calf problem sustained during the recent loss at Chelsea.

Evans has thrived since moving from Old Trafford to the West Midlands in August 2015 and was linked with a summer move to Arsenal after a fine maiden campaign. The versatile centre-back is one of a group of Baggies players whose status for the weekend will be decided following a final training session on Friday, although Pulis was reluctant to name who else might be in danger of missing out.

"We've got one or two little knocks and niggles and we'll assess them this afternoon," he told the media during Friday's pre-game press conference. "We'll do a light session this afternoon, see how they get through that and then we'll pick the team from there."

He added: "There's just a couple who have got slight knocks. I think they'll all want to play, but then it's just picking the ones that we think will be right for us in a three-game week against a team that's going to make you work for the ball. We're going to have to pick players who are right on it fitness wise as well as anything else."

When asked whether or not Evans is back in contention, he said: "Jonny is one of the ones that we won't know [about] until later on today."

Second-choice goalkeeper Boaz Myhill will not be in the squad to face Manchester United as he continues to recover from an ankle issue suffered in training last month. Saido Berahino, meanwhile, will require another couple of tune-up games with the development team before he is considered for a first-team comeback. The striker, who is out of contract at the end of the current campaign, featured during an U23 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers in Kidderminster on Monday after returning to a conditioning camp in France and being put on an individual training regime to improve his sub-par fitness.

"He played a U23 game on Monday and he needs more games, we need to get him more game time," Pulis said. "Fingers crossed, he'll stay with us. But the window opens again and you just don't know what's going to happen.

"He most probably needs another couple of games before we can get him involved. We don't want to put him in and [have] him pick an injury up or do something that will set him back again."