West Brom have been dealt a significant blow: midfielder Mikey Johnston will miss an "extended period" of the Championship season after suffering a further setback to the ankle injury that has already plagued the opening weeks of his campaign.

The injury in detail

Johnston, 27, originally fractured his ankle during a Championship match at Oxford in February. The injury was declared healed over the summer and the club carefully managed his pre-season workload, giving him 45 minutes each against Notts County and Coventry in build-up games, plus 25 minutes against Peterborough and a further 30 minutes of competitive action in the Carabao Cup against Rotherham United. That Rotherham appearance, it now transpires, is the only competitive football he will have played for some time.

"Mikey felt pain in his ankle again and a scan flagged a further injury," Tony Strudwick, Albion's director of medical, told the club's website. "We have consulted two of the best ankle specialists in the country and he's now following a treatment plan which does not involve surgery."

Strudwick described it as "a complex injury" and was unable to place a "specific timeline" on when Johnston might return. That kind of language, from a medical director who clearly knows the case inside out, warrants concern rather than optimism.

Why this matters for the Baggies

Johnston joined West Brom permanently from Celtic in August 2024, having spent four months on loan at The Hawthorns before that. He has accumulated 99 appearances for the club across all competitions and, at his best, offers a direct, energetic option in wide midfield areas that the Baggies have been building around. Losing that for an indeterminate stretch of the season is a material problem, not merely a squad inconvenience.

West Brom are competing in a Championship where the margins between the play-off places, mid-table mediocrity, and the bottom three can be brutally thin. Every available body in a long second-tier campaign matters. A key player missing for weeks, potentially months, forces the head coach to find solutions from a shallower pool. Whether the squad has the depth to compensate across a 46-game season remains to be seen.

No cause for short-term panic, but long-term caution is warranted

The encouraging news is that surgery has been ruled out. That removes the worst-case scenario, and a conservative treatment plan gives the medical staff control over the rehabilitation timeline. But "complex" recurring ankle injuries in footballers are notoriously unpredictable. A player can tick every box in a phased return, then feel pain again the moment loads increase. Johnston has already experienced exactly that cycle once this season.

It would be premature to write him off for the campaign, but it would be equally naive to pencil him back in before Christmas and treat that as a reliable plan. The club's honesty in refusing to name a return date is, at least, the right approach: false precision would only create false expectations.

For West Brom supporters, the focus for now must shift to what the squad can produce without him. Four games without a key midfielder tells you very little about a side's capacity to cope across a full season. The real test will come in the weeks ahead, when the fixture list does not care about injury lists.

Frequently asked

How long is Mikey Johnston out for West Brom?
West Brom have not given a specific return date. The club's director of medical described it as an 'extended period' and said no precise timeline could be set, though surgery has been ruled out.
What injury does Mikey Johnston have?
Johnston has a recurring ankle injury. He originally fractured his ankle in a Championship match at Oxford in February, and after appearing to recover, suffered a further problem to the same ankle after playing 30 minutes against Rotherham United.
When did Mikey Johnston join West Brom?
Johnston signed permanently for West Brom from Celtic in August 2024, having previously spent four months on loan at The Hawthorns.