Brighton injuries – Fabian Hurzeler provides latest on two major concerns after Southampton win..
All the latest team news after Brighton’s 4-0 win at Southampton
Brighton enjoyed a comfortable 4-0 win at Southampton and will now hope for some positive injury news ahead of Tuesday’s clash against Bournemouth at the Amex Stadium.
Albion made it three wins in a row as they cruised to victory at rock-bottom Southampton to climb to eighth place in the Premier League and keep their European ambitions on track.
Goals from Joao Pedro, Georginio Rutter, Kaoru Mitoma and Jack Hinshelwood were more than enough to condemn the Saints to a 21st defeat of the season.
Fabian Hurzeler, Manager of Brighton & Hove Albion, has injury concerns after the win at Southampton
Fabian Hurzeler, Manager of Brighton & Hove Albion, has injury concerns after the win at Southampton
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But there was concern ahead of the match as key duo Danny Welbeck and Joel Veltman both missed the match and will hope to be back in time to face the Cherries, who were beaten 1-0 by lowly Wolves today.
It is understood Welbeck – who has six goals and five assists so far this term – sustained an injury in training and was given time to rest with Tuesday very much in mind.
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“I can’t give you any precise message [on Werlbeck or Veltman],” said head coach Fabian Hurzeler in his post-Southampton press conference. “Because we really have to go day by day, I didn’t talk to them today, they received treatment, so hopefully they will be an option for Tuesday.
“But I’m not sure if everyone can be an option, so we have to be honest, we have to really go day by day, and let’s see how they are tomorrow, let’s see how they are on Monday, and then we can decide.”
Skipper Lewis Dunk missed the match at St Mary’s as he continues his recovery from a rib injury. He will be assessed between now and Tuesday.
“It is an issue where I can’t say it will take two weeks or three weeks,” Hurzeler said before the Southampton victory. “Everyone knows Lewis, he is trying really hard to get back on the training pitch as quickly as possible. But, at the moment, he has a lot of pain and we really have to go day by day. It is an area near the ribs, so I think everyone who had something with the ribs knows it can be very painful.”
There was however good news for Ecuadorian left-back Pervis Estupinan who played the final 20 minutes at Southampton, having missed the last three matches with a muscular issue.
The comfortable victory against a poor Southampton team boosts Albion’s chances of qualifying for Europe once again but Hurzeler was just focussed on the performance.
“You can never expect to win 4-0, but overall we’re very happy with the performance. I think the key today was to defend in a quite compact way, to be very sharp for the second ball, to win your duels, and we did it.
“I think, in general quite good, (there were some phases where we struggled a little bit with the second ball, we had a lack in our midfield, but in general I was happy with the performance.”
