ROBERTO Di Matteo is hopeful Pablo Ibanez will win his race to be fit in time for Saturday's Barclays Premier League opener at Chelsea (ko 5.30pm live on ESPN).
And the Baggies boss has been boosted by Marek Cech (groin) and Gabriel Tamas (knee) shaking off injuries to report for international midweek duty with Slovakia and Romania respectively.
Summer signing Ibanez was forced to pull out of Albion's final pre-season clash with Osasuna in the warm-up four days ago due to a hamstring problem.
He has yet to train this week but scans have confirmed there is no serious damage.
Meanwhile, Graham Dorrans (sore groin) has returned to The Hawthorns after reporting in for Scotland and remains a doubt for the trip to Stamford Bridge.
"Ibanez has had his scan," said Di Matteo.
"It hasn't shown anything worse than we expected.
"He didn't train yesterday and neither did Dorrans.
"We'll assess both of them again today.
"Pablo should be available for Saturday hopefully and we don't know on Dozza yet.
"Marek and Gabi went away with their international teams so I expect them to both be fine."
