Peter Odemwingie will put Nigeria before West Brom

Peter Odemwingie will put his country before  club in the New Year after electing to play in the Africa Cup of  Nations.
West Brom’s striker is eager to make himself  available for what might be his last chance of glory with Nigeria.
With the Baggies’ victory over Southampton  pushing the club up to the giddy heights of fifth, the forward has therefore  pushed himself forward for selection.
‘It’s hard not to go for this,’ he said, ‘it  could be my last one and it is a different situation now from the first two  years at the club. My goals here were very important.
‘Now any player can play well. We have good  players who can play well for a whole month and I’m sure the club will do well  without me.
‘I have a few things to clarify with the  Nigeria manager because he substituted me in his first game, very early in the  second-half.
‘But after speaking to him, he said it was  nothing personal that the whole team was playing badly and unfortunately for me,  he started by taking me off.
‘Everything has settled down now. He says  that if I want to play, I’m welcome. So, of course, it’s my country which I love  and I’m going to play for them.
‘I will put the country and fans before  anything.’
West Brom’s head coach Steve Clarke will also  miss midfield kingpin Youssouf Mulumbu who has been one of the Baggies’ star  performers this season.
Mulumbu is due to play with the DR Congo at  the same time and Odemwingie feels West Brom have the depth of squad to  cope.
‘Youssouf is also a very important player for  us in the middle but we have good numbers of players,’ added the striker who  took his tally to the season to three with a brace against Southampton on Monday  night.
‘We have Yassine El Ghanassay who is still  waiting his chance to show something from one of the wings.
‘We also have Chris Brunt, James Morrison and  George Thorne. We have players who can play at this level and Albion took that  into consideration when recruiting players. They knew a few of us might  go.
‘I know it’s going to be a bit of a loss us  leaving for a couple of weeks but we hope the players there can follow the  team’s performance.’