Albion winger Matt Phillips will spend four months on the sidelines due to a torn hamstring.
Long-serving Phillips, 32, broke down while chasing a clearance just before half-time in Saturday’s home defeat to Leicester.
He is not forecast to return until April at the earliest, leaving around a month of the regular Championship campaign and the possibility of play-offs.
Corberan could not disguise his disappointment at today’s press conference, with Phillips a key regular in Albion’s side this season. He failed to start in just one league game – Cardiff just prior to his injury – before the incident.
“Unfortunately I have to give bad news that I’ve suffered a lot, not only because he’s an important player, but you suffer a lot when someone like him who loves his job, the professional he is and the dedication he has suffers an injury, it’s hard for him to accept and us to see,” Corberan said.
“He has a 3cm injury in the hamstring, it means 50 per cent of the tendon is involved, now there is a decision to make between surgery or not, but the timing is going to be around four months, even with surgery or not.”
The head coach, whose side visit Sunderland on Saturday, referenced the irony in resting Phillips just before his injury.
Phillips has been a regular mostly at wing-back this season – a position Corberan said he could not rotate him from – and then latterly in his more recognisable wing role.
The Spaniard also said how, be it on matchday or in training, Phillips will give 100 per cent and does not know how to not give his all.
“And look how football is – the day you give rest in the week, you have the player injured. Sometimes injuries are very difficult to prevent,” the boss added.
“You need to improve your process of training, improving managing the rest with values the players can show you. But the injury was suffered in a simple action – unfortunately it has affected his hamstring a lot and he’s not going to be with the group the next few months.
“The only thing that we want is that he keeps strong, be focused like he will do to recover, because he’s someone important to us even if for only the last months – I want to see Phillips playing with the team again.”
Fellow winger Jed Wallace is also absent and almost certain to miss out at the Stadium of Light. Corberan revealed the shoulder injury sustained at Cardiff – which is not a dislocation or break – would normally rule a player out for a month but the captain’s commitment will see him reduce that timeframe.
It could be that the home game against Stoke, on Sunday week, is a possibility for Wallace’s return, with a trip to Rotherham to come in midweek before that.
Defender Kyle Bartley has trained after a hamstring precaution and is set to be available in Sunderland.
The head coach said: “Normally with Wallace’s injury he will be around one month or three weeks out, but normally with the character of Wallace you are going to reduce this time.
“Every day he is feeling better, now is starting to have mobility in the arm, it means…it is very difficult to see him against Sunderland, he would surprise me a lot, but with his character and how he manages, he will reduce the time we estimated.”
Striker Daryl Dike is nearing the end of a lengthy rehabilitation on the ruptured Achilles suffered in Stoke in April.
The United States international could return to training in a couple of weeks after he steps up individual work with Albion’s fitness department having spent months working with the medical team.
“He is working still with the medical staff, he will start to have some part now with the physical staff,” Corberan said of the striker. “I think in around a couple of weeks he can be involved to work with the group.”
Long-term absentees Adam Reach (quad) and Martin Kelly (ACL) will feature for Richard Beale’s under-21s before Corberan determines them available for first-team contention.
