Baggies hope trio will be fighting fit for new season

Newcomers to the Premier League, West Bromwich Albion, are hopeful that their injured trio of players will be fit for the start of the forthcoming campaign.

Filipe Teixeira is making good progress in his recovery from a serious knee injury, while Jonathan Greening and striker Roman Bednar are set for pre-season action.

The Portuguese midfielder Teixeira missed the last two months of the season after suffering cruciate ligament damage to his left knee in March. He has been rehabilitating with the help of the physiotherapist and doctor at his former club, Academica de Coimbra, following an operation in his homeland.

He is back on his feet doing light jogging and strength work and is due to return to England next week to continue his recovery with the Baggies' medical staff at the club's training ground.

The club physio, Richie Rawlins, says he is pleased with the 27-year-old's progress. "I've been speaking to Filipe throughout the summer and he seems very optimistic and happy with how things are going. The operation was a success. The swelling has all gone down and the knee is a lot stronger. There have been no setbacks, he is progressing well and everything is going according to plan," he said.

"While the rest of the boys head off to Holland and Germany on pre-season tour he'll be staying here and doing rehab work with us. He'll continue his strengthening work and jogging and we'll see how he goes."

Meanwhile, Teixeira's fellow midfielder Greening and striker Bednar underwent hernia operations during the summer break – but both will be fit when pre-season training begins on Thursday. Rawlins added: "There is no problem with either. They will both train as normal with the rest of the lads."

In France, Marseilles claim they have the necessary paperwork that will allow Hatem Ben Arfa's protracted transfer from Lyons to go through.

The French champions announced late on Saturday that they had pulled the plug on the France winger's proposed move to Marseilles, claiming the Mediterranean side had not met their demands.

In a statement, Lyons claimed no document had been signed by the parties involved. And they added that a letter sent by Marseilles to the French league which said a contract was about to be signed by Ben Arfa had been done without the consent of Lyons.

But Marseilles have responded by claiming they have all the documents required for the transfer to proceed as planned.

In a statement published by L'Equipe, they said: "We have respected all the commitments that we have been asked to fulfil and we have in our possession the document by which the two clubs fixed all the details."