West Brom could boast best ever contingent at World Cup next summer

Jake Livermore and Nacer Chadli have already qualified for the tournament with England and Belgium respectively, and Grzegorz Krychowiak joined them over the weekend with Poland.

On Sunday, Egypt's dramatic late winner against Congo sent Ahmed Hegazi's nation to their first World Cup in 28 years.

That means if Albion's Northern Irish trio - Gareth McAuley, Jonny Evans, and Chris Brunt - win their play-off game to reach Russia 2018, the Baggies are likely to have a record-breaking number of representatives at the tournament.

Michael O'Neill's side secured their place in the play-offs despite a Brunt own goal handing Norway a 1-0 victory in their final qualifier.

There is also a possibility that Hal Robson-Kanu or James McClean will join their team-mates next summer as Wales and the Republic of Ireland face each other in a winner-takes-all showdown in Cardiff tonight with another play-off spot on the line. And if Serbia don't beat Georgia, then the winner qualifies automatically.

The record number of Albion players at a World Cup is four, set in both 1958 and 2010.

Don Howe, Derek Kevan, and Bobby Robson were all in the 1958 England squad while Stuart Williams travelled with Wales.

Albion wing-half Maurice Setters was also named in the England squad that year but he didn't travel to Sweden or compete in any games.

In 2010, Robert Koren captained Slovenia, Chris Wood competed for New Zealand, Marek Cech was in South Africa with Slovakia and Gonzalo Jara was there with Chile.

As it stands, Albion could have as many as eight players in Russia next year, doubling their previous best, although there is uncertainty surrounding Chadli's future as a Baggies player and Krychowiak and Hegazi are on loan from other clubs.

However, Hegazi's loan from Al Ahly is expected to be made permanent next summer and Krychowiak has only returned to the Poland squad since getting regular football under Tony Pulis, so Albion can rightly claim more credit than his parent club Paris Saint-Germain.

The Baggies have had players at the last three World Cups, but it hasn't always been that way.

Robson, Kevan and Howe were also named in the 1962 England squad, but there was a dearth of Albion representatives from 1966 to 2002 when only three Baggies featured in 10 World Cups.

Jeff Astle went to Mexico 1970 with England and Willie Johnston went to Argentina 78 with Scotland, but was sent home after the first game for testing positive for a banned substance he was taking for hayfever.

Defender Jimmy Nicholl was in the Northern Ireland squad in 1986, which was the last time the Green and White Army reached the finals.

Two decades of no-shows followed, before Albion sent Tomasz Kuszczak (Poland) and Junichi Inamoto (Japan) to the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Four years later four players went to South Africa, and two - Diego Lugano (Uruguay) and Ben Foster (England) - made it to Brazil 2014.