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Di Matteo must wait for Meite and Mozza

Posted on: Tue 26 Jan 2010

ROBERTO Di Matteo has given his squad a clean bill of health for tonight's trip to Ipswich (ko 7.45pm) - and hopes to be boosted by the return of Abdoulaye Meite from African Nations Cup duty before the weekend.

Jonas Olsson (head), Youssouf Mulumbu (ankle) and Ishmael Miller (face) are all available for the Portman Road encounter after picking up minor knocks in Saturday's 4-2 FA Cup fourth-round win over Newcastle.

Meite was an unused substitute for Ivory Coast as they were knocked out of the African Nations Cup at the quarter-final stage in a 3-2 extra-time defeat by Algeria on Sunday night.

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And Di Matteo admits they will have to assess his fitness after being away on international duty since Boxing Day.

"Jonas had to have three stitches on his forehead," he said.

"The others have all recovered.

"We will have to protect him and put the bandage on but he should be eligible.

"He's the kind of person who is more than happy to play with a small injury."

The Baggies boss added: "We expect Abou back as soon as he can.

"We're trying to contact him but he should be back tomorrow or the day after.

"Whether he'll be okay for Saturday I don't know.

"He's not played much out there so we will need to check on his condition and see what he has been doing for the last four weeks."

James Morrison is still continuing his recovery from a heel injury and will not be involved in the Tractor Boys clash.

"I never put a date on it because of his injuries," said Di Matteo.

"He had been out for a long time and we had a few set-backs.

"Again I won't be putting a date on his comeback.

"We just hope he will be available as soon as possible."

The Hawthorns chief also revealed Luke Moore was simply left out for tactical reasons against Toon at the weekend.

"We had two strikers on the bench and we needed to cover all the other positions," he added.

"It was just for one game.

"We will need everybody because we are going to be playing every three days now and if a player misses one game it may be because of any particular reason.

"It may just be because of who we're playing and how we play and what positions we need to cover."

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