Brighton suffer fresh injury blow ahead of Newcastle United clash as key man remains out
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Hurzeler has confirmed that James Milner will not feature against his former side after suffering a setback in his recovery from injury. Milner has missed Brighton’s last four league outings and whilst there were hopes he would be back for the clash against his former side, Hurzeler has confirmed that the 38-year-old will not make the trip to the north east.
“He had a small setback,” Hurzeler said. “It's not that positive as it was before the international break.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“We have to be patient. It's not a thing that will be solved in one or two weeks. It will take several weeks. We can't give a clear schedule when he will be back, but before the break we were more positive, I can be honest about that.”
Elsewhere, Brighton were also hopeful of being able to call upon the services of Solly March for the first time in over a year. March suffered a serious knee injury in October last year and hasn’t featured for the first-team since.
Whilst the 30-year-old has made a Premier League 2 appearance this season, Hurzeler has revealed that it may be a while yet until March is available to him on a regular basis: “We need to give him a lot of time because being back after such a long injury, it’s not a comeback which will go in a linear way, it's more like a comeback with waves – there will be up and downs.
"You need to accept the up and downs, not only we as a staff or we as a coaching team, but also Solly as a player, he has to accept these up and downs because they are normal after a long injury. But he's doing quite good mentally and physically and he is in a good way. He has the right mindset. He's a positive guy and we have to be patient with him, but I'm sure we're on the right way.”
The Seagulls will have Jan Paul van Hecke back on Saturday, however, with Hurzeler confirming he is fit enough to play. Joao Pedro, Matt O’Riley and Adam Webster will miss out, however.
Comment Guidelines
National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.