Baggies hope for Gera return

West Brom are confident key midfielder Zoltan Gera and defender Steve Watson will be available for the hectic Christmas period after injury.

Hungarian skipper Gera will continue his comeback after a hernia operation by playing for the reserves against Manchester City tonight.

Gera played 45 minutes of last week’s second team meeting with Aston Villa, his first action since the Barclays Premiership clash with Blackburn in early October.

Watson is also on target to return for the festive programme after missing the single goal defeat at Portsmouth with a hamstring injury suffered against Manchester City the previous weekend.

Baggies assistant-manager Nigel Pearson confirmed: “Zoltan Gera will play in Tuesday’s reserve game and we would hope he may play some part during the Christmas period, although we don’t want to rush him back.

“We also expect Steve Watson to be have recovered for the trip to Manchester United on St Stephen's Day.

“We have been reasonably fortunate in terms of injuries and physically. We are looking at in eight-day period with four games and it’s important we get everyone in good physical shape.”

Pearson admitted West Brom would have to rotate their squad to cope with the demands of such a schedule.

He said: “This is where the squad situation comes into its own. I think it’s fair to say we’d like to continue keeping a settled side, but if you can do that over the Christmas period then you’ve done very well.

“We need to accept it is difficult physically to play four games in eight days and there may well be two or three changes. But we will assess things from game to game.

“All we can do at the moment is concentrate on Manchester United and keep an open mind beyond that as to what our line-ups might be.”