Saturday, December 14, is a big day for Nigerian striker, Peter Odemwingie.
The out-of-favour Super Eagles striker will face his former club, West Bromwich Albion for the first time since he departed the club in the summer as the Barclays English Premier League enters match day 16.
The signs are ominous that Odemwingie will be selected to start against the Baggies as the Cardiff City boss, Malky Mackay is a man full of respect for his Nigerian charge.
Mackay has described Odemwingie as "a joy to work with" ahead of Saturday's game.
Odemwingie spent three seasons with the Baggies but his time there is best remembered for a controversial incident in which the striker drove to QPR on the January deadline day in a bid to secure a move, only for the deal to fall through.
While the incident has portrayed the Nigeria international as a troublemaker in some quarters, Mackay has only positive things to say about Odemwingie.
"There was a lot of press around Peter concerning that January, in terms of his on-off transfer to QPR," said the Cardiff boss during his pre-match conference on Friday.
Mackay admitted that Odemwingie suffered a lot as a result of the fiasco but believes the former Lokomotiv Moscow striker was grossly misunderstood.
"He obviously took a lot of stick over that, but I can only speak about the lad that I know.
"I phoned up certain people who played with him and coached him and managed him and they were glowing.
"If they hadn't been, that would have given me cause for concern.
"The boy I have met and I have here is articulate, he speaks four or five different languages, he is intelligent, he has smiled since the day he arrived here and he is very polite too.
"He is a talented footballer and definitely wants to do well for us. He has been a joy to work with and he wants to do the best he can for the club, so it has been a really good one for us.
"We did our homework on him and had he not been the right kind of person, I wouldn't have brought him in," said Mackay.
Odemwingie made his Nigeria debut in 2002 and has been capped 55 times for the Super Eagles.
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