Bednar upbeat regarding injury

West Brom’s top scorer Roman Bednar is confident he will have recovered from a back problem in time to face West Ham in Monday’s Barclays Premier League clash at Upton Park.

The former Hearts player missed the defeats against Everton and Arsenal after initially suffering the setback during a training camp in Spain.

But Bednar, on target seven times this season, is optimistic he will be challenging Jay Simpson, Marc-Antoine Fortune and Luke Moore for a place in the starting line-up against the Hammers.

He said: “I landed heavily from a great height on the base of my back out in Spain. The pitch was hard and at the time the back just felt a bit sore and I carried on training.

“But a couple of days later it started to swell up and get really painful and I wasn’t able to train. It died down and I was due to be in the squad for the game at Everton.

“But the day before I got a knock in a collision on the training ground and it swelled up to the size of a tennis ball.

“I have been back in training and I’m still having to take things easy and make sure I don’t get another blow on my back but, unless it gets caught again, I should be fine and available against West Ham.”

Albion’s injury problems are easing with central defender Jonas Olsson also in line to face West Ham after two months out with a knee problem.

Simpson will be back in contention after being ineligible to face his parent club Arsenal in Albion’s last outing eight days ago.