Misfiring West Brom striker, Brown Ideye, has been tipped for the shootout Queen Park Rangers in a crunch clash around the drop zone at Loftus Road on Saturday.
WBA boss, Alan Irvine, is willing to stick with record £10 million signing Ideye, despite the Nigerian failing to net in the top-flight.
Ideye has struggled to live up to his price tag following a switch from Dynamo Kiev.
He has managed just one goal for the Albion in the League Cup against Hull – but injured himself in the process.
Now, Irvine insists the forward is finally fit after visa delays and injury problems contributed to a disappointing start to his Albion career.
Irvine, who handed Ideye a recall last week in the win over Aston Villa, explained: “I didn’t want to put him into the team as early as we did at the start of the season but we had injuries.
“It was a real shame for him. It was a bit unfair on him because he wasn’t ready.
“He’s been through a spell where he looked as if he had no energy whatsoever and couldn’t move. He looked as if he had no coincidence and no sharpness in front of goal – you can’t get ready for a Premier League season unless you’ve had a proper training programme beforehand.
“We needed to take him out of it, try to help him to catch up and then he was extremely unfortunate that he got injured scoring against Hull. But we’re almost looking at him as a new player now. In recent weeks he’s been scoring goals in training.
“He’s had the energy to stay behind to do extra finishing afterwards which he just didn’t have for a while. He’s in much better condition physically which helps him to be in better condition mentally.”
Irvine hopes the striker has the edge on Austin but rates the former Swindon ace highly. He added: “He can score all different types of goals and has a great work ethic as well.”