No Twitter ban for Peter Odemwingie

Baggies boss Steve Clarke insisted the club must treat players "like adults" and dismissed suggestions Odemwingie should be ordered to close his account.

The 31-year-old, who clashed repeatedly with fans and criticised the club on Twitter during his attempts to force a January move, launched a lengthy tirade against Nigerian football officials on the micro-blogging side this week before deleting the tweets.

Head coach Clarke said: "I don't do Twitter but we try to treat all our players like adults. You can't sit them down and say 'you can't do this' or 'you can't do that'.

"It has been known for some clubs to do it but I think you'd probably need to put something in the contracts."

Albion contracts do not prohibit the use of Twitter but the club's disciplinary guidelines say players cannot bring the club into disrepute online.

Clarke said: "It's difficult to stop people from tweeting and 99 per cent of them use it very well.

"It's every now and again you get one line that causes a stir. It's like sending a text message, in that it can be very hard to make a joke in a text. It can sound cold.

"It's black and white and doesn't sound the same as when you talk."

Odemwingie was in contention to return to action against Sunderland today for the first time since his January fall-out with the Baggies.

And Clarke has again insisted the striker has been forgiven by his team-mates.

"There is no problem with Peter," said Clarke. "Everything is good here. The strength of your dressing room is very important and ours is strong enough to deal with the ups and downs.

"Peter's attitude and application has been as good as it was before January and as good as it will be going into the summer.

"When he puts a shirt on for Albion he is part of that team. He has got a big contribution to make."

"His ability and talent is without question. We recognise that and hope Peter has still got a big part to play for the club in the coming matches."