Aston Villa's unsettled striker Luke Moore was today expected to make the short move to West Bromwich Albion as he battles to try and revive a career which has promised so much.

The England Under-21 International, who turned 22 last week, was undergoing a medical today at Albion's Walsall Road training ground with the view to joining the high-flying Championship side on loan until the end of the season.
Albion would then have the option to buy the Birmingham-born striker in a deal worth between £3 million and £3.5 million.

It is understood Albion boss Tony Mowbray has long been an admirer of Moore, who has failed to win over Villa manager Martin O'Neill.

But earlier this week the Albion boss seemed to have ruled out any move for the Villa youngster insisting he was happy with the goalscorers he had already at the club.

Before his apparent u-turn, Mowbray said: "The Luke Moore thing is purely speculation and he will not have any impact on the players at the club now.

"We have got Ishmael Miller, Kevin Phillips, Roman Bednar and Craig Beattie and we have scored more goals than anyone else in the country this season. We are happy enough with our goal-scorers but they have to keep the competition going amongst themselves."

With the Baggies in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup however and looking to guarantee promotion back to the Premier League this season, Mowbray has perhaps decided it is wise to have additional fire-power particularly if Kevin Phillips' recurring knee problems should flare up again in the future.

Moore, meanwhile, is eager to kick-start his career again after failing to even get on the bench in Villa's recent matches. He was another successful product of Villa's youth academy and started his career with his boyhood club alongside his older brother Stefan who went on to play for Queens Park Rangers and Millwall.

The Moore brothers were both involved in Villa's FA Youth Cup winning side of 2002 before Luke spent a spell on loan at Wycombe Wanderers.

His first senior goal for Villa came in the 2-0 victory over Middlesborough on March 5 2005 and less than a year later he scored his first Premiership hat-trick against Boro too.

But after a successful year in the first team where he managed to sustain a first team place despite the arrival of Milan Baros and Kevin Phillips - who ironically Moore will now rejoin at Albion - the youngster was out for a considerable time after having surgery on a persistent shoulder injury.

Since then he has struggled to hold down a consistent place in the Villa side and the acquisition of Norwegian striker John Carew, Scottish International Shaun Maloney and the emergence of fellow Academy player Gabby Agbonlahor have all seen Moore pushed further down the pecking order.

In recent weeks he has failed to secure a place on the Villa bench with O'Neill preferring £4.5 million signing Marlon Harewood, who joined Villa from West Ham last summer.

If the deal goes through today as expected Villa would have the option to recall Moore after 28 days if necessary.