Albion's Irvine looks forward to signing World Cup star Cristian Gamboa

The World Cup star is expected to sign a contract at the Hawthorns today after having had a medical in the week.

And Irvine is full of praise for the flexible 24-year-old defender, who will be moving from Norwegian side Rosenborg, where he played a starring role last season.

He said: "I think a lot of people will know him from the World Cup, he played as a wing back in the tournament but he's also played at right back.

"We like the fact that he's versatile, he's extremely quick, aggressive, he plays very much on the front foot and has great energy.

"Hopefully he will do a good job for us."

The Albion boss was speaking after last night's 3-1 win over American third-tier outfit Sacramento Republic, which came after a week-long tour to the Californian capital.

He is pleased with the way the training camp has gone, which has seen a boost to the squad with the returns of injured duo Chris Brunt and James Morrison to training, while Craig Dawson also got 70 minutes in the game last night after seeing off a minor knock.

Gareth McAuley and Joleon Lescott are also close to a return to training.

Irvine added: "It's been terrific, we've been well looked after, there has been nothing to complain about. The weather was fantastic and the training ground was excellent.

"On the pitch the lads have done a lot of good work. The only negative is that we didn't have everyone fit.

"But we had Chris Brunt back for two days, James Morrison back for the last day so that's really good, and I'm hoping we'll have them all back by Wednesday."