Samir has recovered from a knock picked up during Watford's 1-0 win over Aston Villa and should be available for Wednesday's game against Crystal Palace.

The centre back has contributed to two clean sheets since his arrival and has developed a strong partnership at the back alongside Craig Cathcart.

He returned to training this morning and has no lingering problems after he had to be replaced by Christian Kabasele in closing stages of Saturday's match at Villa Park due to a head injury.

"He's a tough boy," said manager Roy Hodgson. "He was fine. He was fine yesterday so he's trained with us today. It was a knock which luckily didn't produce any threat of concussion. For me, I think it was one of those knocks which, at the end of a tough game, he probably felt a bit more.

"Luckily by Sunday morning, he was a lot better and even better still today."

Two players who were ruled out of the trip to Villa Park were Joao Pedro and Juraj Kucka, both of whom will require further assessment tomorrow to determine whether or not they are able to play against Crystal Palace on Wednesday night.

Elsewhere, Peter Etebo made his first appearance in a Watford shirt this afternoon as he took part in the Under 23s match against Ipswich Town. He was substituted at half time during that game.

Hodgson said the midfielder has been given the all-clear by his surgeon after sustaining a quad injury earlier in the season. Now, it is simply a case of building up his match fitness.

"He's trained with us really from the start," said Hodgson. "It's been more of a question of waiting for the go ahead from his surgeon in Finland, but he got that actually last week. So as far as I'm concerned, basically, we don't have any great concerns, but of course, he hasn't played a competitive match for many months. So it was good to get some minutes in today's game.

"If he comes through that okay, then we're going to be able to start counting on him.

"With [Pedro and Kucka] their injuries were such that they are still being monitored. Both have made incredibly good progress, much quicker than we expected. But we'll still have to wait until tomorrow to see if Wednesday is a game too soon, or whether they can make it."