Zuiverloon a Villa doubt

Gianni Zuiverloon faces a race against time to be fit for Sunday's derby game against rivals Aston Villa. The Dutch defender has been sidelined since limping out after 22-minutes during his country's Under-21 defeat to Switzerland a week ago. Now after missing the West Ham victory, Tony Mowbray has revealed it will be touch-and-go as to whether the £3.2 million pound summer signing will be available for Sunday (KO 12pm).

"Things are quite positive on Gianni's hamstring injury," Mowbray revealed.

"There's no tear so it's not going to be a lengthy injury.

"It will either be this weekend or next weekend I would think.

"It will be ten days or something like that.

"I'm sure the boy will want to get back up and running as fast as he can.

"The test will come when he tries it out."

The Albion boss is also confident both Ishmael Miller and Abdoulaye Meite will be in training before for the Villa game after sitting out the weekend and revealed mixed news on knee victims Filipe Teixeria and Neil Clement.

"The extra day helps us and I would hope by the end of the week they're back on the training field," the Albion chief added.

"But you can never really tell with these injuries.

"With five days to go I couldn't give you a clear indication of whether they're going to be ready or not."

He added: "Filipe is back on the training pitch now and is doing non-contact work,

"The boys know not to go kicking him and clattering into him.

"It's great to see him out there joining in because he is a chirpy boy.

"He's had a long time out and it's great to see him out there again.

"Clem's not back on the grass yet.

"It was agreed to give him two or three weeks after seeing the specialist.

"And, after those two or three weeks of working in the gym and strengthening it, he'll get his boots back on and we'll see how he reacts."