Slaven Bilić has confirmed Grady Diangana will remain on loan at Albion until the end of the season.
The Baggies have reached an agreement with parent club West Ham United which ensures Grady will stay at The Hawthorns for the remainder of the Sky Bet Championship campaign.
Grady is currently recovering from a hamstring injury, but Slaven expects the England Under-21 international to be back for the ‘crucial stage’ of the season.
Bilić said: “We were doing everything we could to keep Grady, but finally we have done it. He is staying with us until the end of the season.
“He got injured in the first minutes against Stoke but he is going to be back, hopefully very soon. It’s not going to be that soon but it’s not going to be that long. We are expecting that he will be back for the crucial stage of the season.
“I would be lying if I said I knew he would be this good, we didn’t know, but I didn’t want him here just as a squad player or as a number.
“To be fair, that was his question to me when I called him about the possibility that we would like to have him here. His question was ‘boss, am I going to play here?’
“He said, ‘you have this player and this player’. I said, ‘you are not going to walk into the team but I know you and if you do what I think you can do, then you are going to be a very important part of the team.’”
In his time at The Hawthorns Grady has been an influential member of Bilić’s table-topping Baggies, having netted five goals in his 21 league appearances.
“He gelled in straight away. He scored a couple in basically his first game against Luton.
“No doubt he has a great future, of course, he is a player. We are delighted, of course. He is happy here. It was his decision. He likes it here, he feels important here and he thinks it is the best place he could be for this stage of his career."