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Roy Hodgson expecting West Brom transfer backing

Roy Hodgson today revealed that Zoltan Gera's season-ending injury will not change Albion's January transfer plans as the midfielder headed for surgery on his knee.

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Roy Hodgson today revealed that Zoltan Gera's season-ending injury will not change Albion's January transfer plans as the midfielder headed for surgery on his knee.

Gera was booked in for an operation today, ending an emotional week that saw his wife give birth to a son just days after he ruptured a cruciate ligament against Tottenham.

But Hodgson's transfer priorities are unchanged. And the Baggies head coach believes he will be backed to fine-tune his squad after a preliminary meeting with chairman Jeremy Peace.

"All clubs will have something of a change-around in January because there are players who start the season looking to get into the team, don't do so and get a little disenchanted and look to move on," said Hodgson.

"If that happens to us, as it could do with a few players, we will have to look to replace them.

"But in the few weeks before Zoltan's injury we have had 25 or 26 players in training and you could argue we don't need that size of squad.

"We need our strength in the first 18. Dan Ashworth, Jeremy and myself had a meeting the other day and discussed things in general terms and I'm pretty sure the club will do its best to make certain that we will be able to get anything we need within the parameters that we work.

"Losing Zoltan will not really change things. Zoltan is the ultimate utility player so in losing him we have effectively lost two players."

Gera will have the damaged ligament repaired today before embarking on a six-nine-month rehabilitation programme.

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