Albion boss Tony Mowbray is willing to wait until the final build up to the clash with Fulham to discover whether stand-in captain Paul Robinson can play.

Robinson is still awaiting the arrival of his third child and wants to be with wife Caroline during her labour – even if it means missing the match.

But he is hoping the birth does not clash with the match at Craven Cottage and Mowbray is willing to offer the 30-year-old defender as much leeway as possible.

The manager said: “I’m happy to let Paul put his family first. Football has moved on from football managers of maybe 10 years ago, who would maybe have criticised a player for wanting to be with his wife when she was giving birth.

“I’m more than happy to put Paul’s family in front of us going to Fulham and trying to win a football match.

“We’ve got other players who can play that position but Paul will do everything in his power to be there with the team and playing at the weekend.

“If that means he doesn’t stay overnight and he drives down on Sunday and reports to the hotel, I haven’t got a problem with that. But at the moment the plan is that he’s coming with the squad.

“If his phone rings at 12.30pm and his missus has gone into labour and he wants to get into his car, good luck to him.

“Family is very important and I’ll give him licence to do what he wants to. But if the game kicks off, he’ll get on with it and play.”

Mowbray has full confidence in Slovakia international Marek Cech to step in if Robinson is called away to his wife’s bedside.

The Hawthorns chief said: “Paul wasn’t in Spain this week, so we carried on with Marek at left back in all the team shapes and formations we worked in.

“He is a top international player who understands his situation. I have sat in my office enough times with Marek and talked the situation through with him.

“He knows my thoughts on things and if he’s required to play at the weekend, he’ll give a very good account of himself.

“He’s held in very high regard by me for the qualities he’s shown when he has been asked to play.”

Mowbray is backing his players to provide Roy Hodgson’s Fulham with a stern test of their impressive defensive record.

He said: “They came to The Hawthorns and we managed to beat them in a very entertaining game. It was a very open game and we’ve got to respect their qualities.

“They’ve got a £10million centre forward in Andrew Johnson and Bobby Zamora cost £6million.

“They have got a lot of experience with the likes of Danny Murphy, Zoltan Gera and Simon Davies – and Olivier Dacourt has now joined them.

“Their record and home suggests they’ll go into it in a very confident mode, but we now believe we can score goals.

“At home and generally away they’ve been pretty solid and built their success off their defensive organisation. Let’s hope we can breach that.”