The Egyptian centre-back is on a season-long loan from Al Ahly, and included in the deal is an option to buy him for £4.5million which has to be triggered before June 30, 2018.

But the 26-year-old has convinced new boss Alan Pardew and the Baggies board to make his move permanent before the summer.

He's been linked with Liverpool, but the Baggies have first refusal and they are now in talks with his parent club about making his loan deal permanent.

“We’re pretty much down the road on that one," said Pardew. “I can’t confirm anything but if we can then we’ll do that.

"He’s been brilliant for me. I’ve only been here for three games but he’s been terrific.

“He has fantastic attributes as a centre-half and I think he’s learning.

“Sometimes he gets a bit too tight but he’s learning to keep his distance. He’s been excellent.”

Nobody has played more minutes for the Baggies this season than Hegazi, who has also been a consistent contender for man of the match.

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He put in another superb performance away at Liverpool on Wednesday night, helping the Baggies shut out their hosts.

And Pardew says his team can take confidence from that point into Sunday's game with Liverpool.

"I'm not sure there's many teams that would have got a clean sheet at Liverpool particularly with the strike-force they put out," he said.

"It was a great effort and determination to get something from the game, the subs, the staff, everybody.

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"Every game that's how we've got to enter it. We might struggle to get seven, eight, nine wins we need, so we need to pick up points everywhere and that was a great point.

"And we had two or three half chances to win it which will give us confidence as well.

"Football is not chess. It's quite logical really, quite simple.

"Don't concede, and then build from there. When I've come in we went straight to a back four which I like to work with.

"They've been brilliant but the midfield protection has been great as well. Now we need to go and score some goals.

"But we've shown ambition, it's not like we've just parked the bus.

"We've tried to get on the front foot and we did that really well at Liverpool, we did a better job than Everton who played their recently, so that's encouraging."