Danny Welbeck is on course to hand Albion an extra Christmas present.

The striker could return ahead of schedule around the festive period.

He continues to recover from hamstring surgery and will again be missing at home to Newcastle, a fixture in which he scored last season.

Albion boss Graham Potter said: “I would say there is a good chance of him returning before January the way he is progressing. He is looking really good, strengthening in the gym, everything he is doing is ahead of time.

“But obviously with the nature of the injury you just need to make sure of everything.

“Touch wood there will be no setbacks, we just need to keep working. Hopefully this side of Christmas, this side of January we will be good.”

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Potter faces a big call over whether to start Neal Maupay who scored three goals against Toon last term.

Maupay was on bench at Anfield last Saturday.

Potter said: “The performance was good but we need to acknowledge that we play a completely different game this weekend.”