West Brom boss nods to 'professionalism' and 'culture' when lauding signing's impact

But just a second start came in Albion's recent defeat at QPR and the experienced Pole, who turns 28 in the new year, looks to have made one of the centre-back positions his own with three straight starts.

"We've got a squad where we do need everyone and I've said it all along - it's not the biggest squad in the league and everyone's got such an important part to play," Mason said.

"If I look at Krystian - he's not really played much football and then he's had to go three games in six days.

"So I think that says a lot about him as a person, as a character. The professionalism to train extremely hard every day to be ready for that moment and that's the message to everyone.

"That's the culture that we're trying to create where everyone's got an important part to play and in football you just never know when you're needed."

Bielik was League One title-winning captain at St Andrew's and made in excess of 100 appearances for Blues. He was one of central defensive recruits as Albion worked to rebuild their defence over the summer.

Nat Phillips, Chris Mepham and George Campbell also checked in as Albion redistributed the funds raised by the £9million sale of Torbjorn Heggem to Bologna.

The experienced Phillips and Mepham have been the centre-back pairing for much of the campaign but have both struggled and been injured or suspended of late.

Mason added of his squad: "I mean Toby (Collyer) got injured, Mowey (Alex Mowatt) gets injured and now we're down to two midfielders. So it's a thin squad but that's fine as long as I've got men that are willing to run and compete for each other and for the team and we need to try and make it work."