Albion have moved early to strengthen their medical and fitness team for next season.

The club have confirmed two key off-field appointments as they near the end of an injury-plagued campaign.

Professor Doctor Florian Pfab will become the club’s new head of medicine ahead of pre-season while Dr Gary Walker will join as head of performance.

Albion have been one of the worst-affected teams in a season which has seen several Premier League outfits troubled by injuries.

Both the new men will be on board in time for pre-season.

Pfab, 48, has forged a strong reputation at Eintracht Frankfurt, who have had the fewest muscle injuries in the Bundesliga in recent seasons.

He has spent the past five years as medical director and head team physician at Eintracht, as well as running his own private clinic in Munich.

Walker is a performance specialist well known for his time at Manchester United and is currently director of sports performance with FC Cincinnati in MLS.

Albion technical director David Weir said there had been an extensive and thorough search process to fill both key roles.

He added: “Both have excellent experience in their respective professional fields, and what has been clear in the recruitment process is that they share our vision of the performance environment for our men’s and women’s staff and players.

“We have developed a world-class training facility and our aim is to give our men’s and women’s first-team, and academy squads the best possible medical and sports science support.

“We look forward to welcoming Florian and Gary to the club in the summer ahead of the new season.”

Pfab will know Pascal Gross from their time together at Ingolstadt and has also worked for Bayern Munich.

Walker has a PhD in exercise physiology and spent more than a decade of his early career working at United, as head of strength and conditioning.

He was then men’s first-team fitness coach for five years before moving to Cincinnati.