The fitness level of Super Eagles’ striker, Brown Ideye, is currently under checks as his new club, West Bromwich Albion, are hopeful the Nigerian will be ready to feature in the Premier League opener at home to Sunderland next Saturday.
The club’s record signing only arrived at the club on Friday after a lengthy wait for a visa, and the Nigerian international forward sat out Saturday’s 3-1 friendly loss to Porto.
However, Alan Irvine thinks Ideye, who has been signed from Dynamo Kiev for around £10 million, may be able to play some part next weekend.
“We’re trying to gauge where he is in terms of his fitness,” West Brom manager, Alan Irvine, told the West Brom website on Sunday.
“The situation at the moment is that he trained yesterday and he’ll train again today. We’ll talk on Monday regarding where we think he is.
“If he’s ready to play some part against Sunderland, that would be great. I know he trained extremely well yesterday and we need to see what the effect of that is.
“He didn’t do a lot of pre-season with Dynamo Kiev, so we’re relying a lot on his natural fitness and athleticism, rather than something that has been worked on.”