Club News

Clarke upbeat on injury front

And Baggies boss hopeful on Lukaku

STEVE Clarke will be boosted by the return of a number of players from injury for Saturday’s home clash with Everton (ko 3pm).

The Baggies boss is also hopeful Romelu Lukaku will be back in training tomorrow after missing Tuesday’s trip to Yeovil due to an ankle injury.

And he has not ruled out Peter Odemwingie recovering from a thigh injury in time to face the Toffees after sitting out the last two games.

“Romelu’s injury is much better and he’s making good progress,” said Clarke.

“He was one of the players who didn’t train today but I’m hopeful he’ll be able to join in tomorrow and we’ll assess how he comes through that.”

“We’ll see how Peter is tomorrow and we’ll take it from there.”

He added: “In midweek I had eight players unavailable due to injury.

“We didn’t choose to go with such a changed team in the Capital One Cup because we want to treat that competition with respect - I think we did that.

“We put out a team we felt could win the game.

“Out of the eight players we had unavailable, four of them trained today and I’m hopeful I’ll have at least another two back tomorrow.

“The injury situation is looking a lot better.”

Jerome Thomas (hip) remains unavailable.