GARETH McAuley has spoken of the depths of despair to which he sank last summer when he thought a stomach illness might end his Baggies career before it had even begun. The Northern Ireland defender, who turns 32 on Monday, was struck down with gastroenteritis after moving on a free transfer from Ipswich.

But he heads to QPR this afternoon as one of the first names on Roy Hodgson’s team-sheet having made his Premier League bow in September and helping Albion to a rare clean sheet.

Seven further starts have followed and McAuley says he could not have envisaged such an outcome three months ago.

“I couldn’t have got a worse start than when I came here and got that virus,” McAuley said.

“For a while, I was actually thinking that I was just going to pack up.

“By that stage, I’d had the illness for six to eight weeks and I just wasn’t getting over it.

“You just wonder where it will end – or if that is the end!