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Cristian Gamboa is unlikely to make his West Bromwich Albion first-team debut until after next month’s international break.

That’s according to Baggies boss Alan Irvine, who claims the Costa Rica international will miss this Saturday’s trip to Southampton and, most likely, the following weekend’s game at Swansea.

The Baggies do have a Capital One Cup game, against Oxford, in between their two top flight matches but, realistically, Irvine does not expect the 24-year-old to feature before next month’s game against Everton, which falls just after the fortnight break.

Costa Rica have Copa Centroamericana games against Nicaragua and Panama on September 3 and 7 respectively.

Irvine intends to speak to national boss Paolo Wanchope to establish whether he will wish to pick Gamboa given his lack of action - if not, he hopes the defender will be allowed to stay behind in England and train with Albion.

Asked about Gamboa’s general overall fitness, Irvine said: “He was assessed over the weekend and on Monday he joined in the technical part of the session so he did the warm up with the fitness coach, then the technical bit with the lads. At that point he went out of it.

“On Tuesday he did a bit more. He did the warm-up, the technical part, did some possession work and joined in some shape work that we did.

“But before the game we took him out because we don’t think he’s ready to take part in a training match yet. We will drip him in gradually.”

Irvine added: “He’s a good athlete. Physically he will get up to speed quickly but he’s behind it at the moment, obviously because he’s done little training since the World Cup. So he’s got a bit to do yet. He won’t be involved this weekend and it might be a big ask for him to be involved in the game at Swansea, so we’re probably looking at him coming back after the international break.

“Interestingly his next games might come at international level initially because they have a couple of games. I will speak to Paolo Wanchope and let him know where Cristian is at the moment. Obviously it’s a big decision for Paolo to include him and if he’s not then it would be better for Cristian to stay here but it’s Paolo’s decision.”

Gamboa’s arrival will give Irvine the added option of playing with three centre-halves and two wing-backs - although the Baggies boss believes he can play as a right-back or as a more conventional right-sided midfielder.

Irvine admits he is not averse to trying out a different system to suit the players he has.

“We need to have three centre-backs fit first,” he added.

“We need to have that option at some point during the season.

“The disappointing thing from my point of view is I’d have liked to have worked on it as one of the alternatives during pre-season.

“But we’ve had two centre-backs injured the whole time.

“As for Cristian, he can play as a right-back, a right wing-back and probably as a right midfield player.

“Those would be the areas where I see him playing.”