West Bromwich Albion striker Shane Long is poised to return after injury for Sunday's derby at Wolves.

And head coach Roy Hodgson is hoping Long's partnership with Peter Odemwingie will finally gel.

Republic of Ireland international Long, signed last summer from Reading has been sidelined in recent weeks with back and digestive problems.

Odemwingie, who scored 15 times last season, has suffered his own injury setbacks including a pre-season ankle blow but is now fit.

Hodgson said: "I make no bones about saying that, at the start of the season, Long and Odemwingie were the two that we thought could push us on.

"With the various injuries that they have suffered, we haven't really seen a sequence of games where those two have played together.

"We are fortunate Marc-Antoine Fortune has recently stepped into the breach. But Long is likely to be back in contention for the Wolves game and we hope they can kick on."