Shane Duffy is winning his race for full fitness.

The Albion centre-back has not been completely ruled out of an early return with the Republic of Ireland.

Duffy limped out of the Carabao Cup defeat to Aston Villa with a calf strain. He will miss the game against Tottenham today.

But his national boss Mick McCarthy has left the door open for him to return in Switzerland a week on Tuesday.

Albion head coach Graham Potter was non-committal when asked for his thoughts.

Potter said: “He has responded really well.

“He’s still not fit to play and he’s not fit for the weekend but, in terms of how quickly he can recover, I wouldn’t like to put any time scale on it.

“I’m not a physio, I’m not a doctor so I wouldn’t want to sit here and guess.

“But he has certainly responded well to treatment and to time as well.”