West Bromwich Albion head coach Slaven Bilic has explained why Watford midfielder Domingos Quina did not end up joining the Baggies on loan.

The Portuguese midfielder was made available for a temporary switch after failing to break through into the first-team again this season and the Black Country side were willing to give him a chance to play for the remainder of the season.

However, comments from Bilic in the Express and Star suggest that West Brom were unable to make space for Quina in the closing stages of the transfer window, meaning he had to stay put at Vicarage Road.

"Quina was an option but only if one of our players was leaving," said Bilic.

"There was a possibility that one of our players would go and one more.

"And for one I said okay, and the other I said no, no way.

"Then maybe we would have got Domingos.

"But because that transfer did not happen it would not be fair to the player to bring him in but for him not to be involved as much as he deserves to be."

It is thought the player who was given the green light by Bilic to leave the Hawthornes was Chris Brunt, whose proposed move to Stoke City was scuppered by the Potters' failure to move on Bruno Martins Indi.

Quina was handed his senior debut at West Ham United under Bilic, who described him as an 'exceptional' player at the time.