Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri refused to blame Danny Drinkwater after the Foxes saw their 20-game unbeaten home run ended by West Brom on Sunday.
The midfielder, who was named in England's squad on Sunday to face Scotland and Spain this month, gifted the Baggies a 2-1 victory at the King Power Stadium.
His miscued backpass sent Matt Phillips clear to score the winner as Albion became the first team to beat Leicester at home in the Premier League since September 2015.
The defeat was the champions' fifth of the season, after they lost just three last term, but Ranieri insisted Drinkwater should not shoulder the blame on his own.
"Danny has said nothing. Every player can make a mistake, what can you say to him. He is one of our best players. No problem he overcomes that, of course," he said.
"I am very sorry we lost our unbeaten record at home. We knew it would be a tough match against West Brom.
"I don't know if they need rest but 80 per cent of my players go to international teams. They don't have rest. They travel and when they come back it is two days before the Watford match. We have to work."
Jamie Vardy, also in Gareth Southgate's latest England squad, was benched before coming on at the break and has now failed to score in his last 13 outings.
Ranieri added: "In this moment with Shinji [Okazaki] we play better. I didn't play [Islam] Slimani in Champions League and I wanted to give a rest to Vards. But it wasn't right, the plan, they didn't do what I asked so in second half I introduced Vardy to attack the defensive line."