West Bromwich Albion manager Bryan Robson hopes the return of Zoltan Gera will improve a misfiring season.

Gera has missed five matches with the niggling groin problem that also caused controversy in his homeland, sidelining him from international duty for Hungary.

On top of Gera aggravating the broken hand suffered on the final day of last season, the heavy workload of his first season in English football and never- ending international commitments, his loss has proved costly for Albion.

Such a key player last season, with six goals in Albion's 'Great Escape', Gera's sole contribution has been a last-gasp pointsaving equaliser at Sunderland in September. His poor early-season form, prior to finally being sidelined with injury, has been one of the main reasons for Albion's feeble haul of eight points in their first 12 games. Robson hopes to have a fit Gera back for the visit of fellow strugglers Everton in 11 days' time.

Robson said: "Zoltan is still a bit of a concern to us because of this problem with his groin but we hope he'll start training towards the end of this week and be in contention for Everton.

"With the nutrition plan he has, we're getting him to more or less where we want him and, within a few more weeks, we'll see the old Zoltan again. I'm hoping, once he's over all these injuries and we get him 100 per cent fit, that the second half of the season will be really good for him.

"It's been a stop-start season for him. When he came back after the international games in the summer, it wasn't the Zoltan of last season with all the energy levels that he had.

"He came back rundown because we never really gave him a rest and then he had all the international games and it just seemed to drain him a bit.

"But when you come from a league like the Hungarian one to play in the Premiership, it is a massive step."