Roy Hodgson hints at FA Cup changes

Roy Hodgson today hinted at changes for Albion's FA Cup clash with Norwich as he pledged to take "no risks" with his injured players.

The Baggies boss is set to rest players for Saturday's fourth-round tie, which comes just four days before a resumption of Premier League action with his first return to former club Fulham.

Hodgson picked his strongest available team for the third-round victory over Cardiff but this week the likes of Jonas Olsson and Shane Long, who both played at Stoke on Saturday despite feeling the effects of calf and back injuries respectively, could be rested.

Hodgson said: "The difference between this and the last cup game is that we only had one game per week and, whatever happened in that game, we knew we had a full week to prepare for our league game.

"Now we are looking at only three days to prepare so I will not be taking risks if there are people who might be ruled out of the next two league games if they play.

"I will leave those players out if our medical people persuade me that they might be at risk.

"The squad is increasing in size from a few weeks ago and we're not as badly off as we were, so it might be a good opportunity for one or two of the players to come in and show what they can do.

"We have to make sure we don't run the risk of people not playing on the Wednesday and next Saturday because we made their injuries worse by playing them this Saturday.

"I'm looking at the players who have been bearing the brunt of the work and maybe giving them a break at the weekend and keeping them up my sleeve for the Wednesday and following Saturday's game against Swansea."

Full-backs Steven Reid (ankle) and Billy Jones (calf) are touch and go for the weekend with midfielder Paul Scharner (Achilles) again likely to be missing.