Toby Collyer reveals Barcelona trip for fitness discovery before Albion move

Happily, Toby Collyer’s reasons behind his Catalan jaunt were rather more sincere. The midfielder took himself off to Spain this summer to do homework on his own body, following a season of frustration which was curtailed by injuries - either muscular or plain unavoidable.

There were a couple of significant set-backs during Collyer’s ill-fated loan last year, but he could have done nothing about being taken out by Hull City goalkeeper Dillon Phillips during a training session while on loan with the Tigers. That rather embodied Collyer’s campaign as a whole.