West Brom Boss Tony Pulis Explains Continued Exclusion of Record-Signing Nacer Chadli

Tony Pulis has claimed that injury has kept West Brom's club record-signing Nacer Chadli from featuring for the Baggies this term.

Although Chadli having yet to play, Pulis also insisted that his relationship with the 28-year-old is fine, despite summer transfer links, and has applauded the Belgian's attitude in recovering from injury.

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"I’ve been disappointed that he's been injured. Disappointed he got that muscular injury because he is important to us," claimed Pulis in the Birmingham Mail.

"But he's really knuckled down and worked hard. He had the option to come with us to London (for the Arsenal game) or play and get 45 minutes in."

"I thought 45 minutes (with the Under 23s) would be best for him because he needs game time."

"As soon as we talked about it he was happy as anybody to get in done. He came back and trained really well."

The pair fell had reportedly previously fell out after Chadli opted not to join the rest of his team mates for Albion's pre-season training camp in the Austrian Alps. However, their relationship seems to have now been patched up.

Despite this, West Brom's £18m record signing is yet to feature in the Premier League this season, even though he has been named in four match-day squads, including Saturday's draw with Watford.

Pulis claims that this is due to Chadli returning from injury and a subsequent lack of fitness rather than any kind of discontent between the two.

Chadli was the subject of interest from Swansea during the transfer window, with such interest thought to have been part of the reason for the pre-season rift.

However Chadli did play 45 minutes for the Under 23s, while the first team were playing Arsenal last week. Pulis will be hoping that Chadli gets some game time with the Belgium national team this week, with the midfielder's return to the Baggies first team seeming to be not far away.