Joleon Lescott is back next week for Baggies

West Brom summer signing Joleon Lescott will be back in training next week – but boss Alan Irvine insists he will not rush the defender's return from injury.

Lescott has played just 35 minutes in pre-season because of a calf injury and the knee problem he suffered at Nottingham Forest on August 2.

He will step up his comeback next week by joining in with full training, but he has already been ruled out of the season opener against Sunderland on Saturday and will be eased back into action.

Irvine said: "It's important that we make sure we bring him back in at the right moment.

"He was desperate to get back in and make sure he was ready for the start of the season and probably, with hindsight, he came back a little bit too early.

"But what do you do when a senior player is that desperate to play and says he's OK? It's difficult for the medical people to override that.

"This time we're being a little bit more cautious to make sure that he's definitely ready for when he comes back.

"We expect him to train with the group next week and we'll take it from there but the most important thing is that Joleon is available for most of the season, so if he misses couple of games now so be it."

Lescott and midfielder James Morrison are the only players ruled out of the Sunderland game, with Morrison not ready despite returning to training this week following knee surgery.

But a number of other players are short of match fitness and could be restricted to roles on the substitutes' bench against the Black Cats.

They include centre-back Gareth McAuley, left-back Jason Davidson and record signing Brown Ideye.

They all made their return from injury in a behind-closed-doors training game against Nottingham Forest this week, with Ideye scoring twice.

Stephane Sessegnon is also touch-and-go for a starting role, after a disrupted pre-season because of international duty.