Brighton face £32m injury crisis as seven ruled out of Wolves clash

Wolves will hope to take advantage of a major injury crisis when they visit Brighton and Hove Albion on Monday night.

The Seagulls have already inflicted a heavy blow on Gary O'Neil's side after they eased to a 4-1 win at Molineux in August - although three of their four goalscorers from that day will not feature at the Amex Stadium as Roberto De Zerbi faces up to a major injury crisis.

Despite facing up to the absence of several key players, the former Sassuolo and Shakthar Donetsk manager has praised his squad as they continue to push for a second successive season in European competition and secured progress in both the Europa League and FA Cup.

Speaking earlier this month, De Zerbi said: “The most important thing has been the mentality of the team. When there are many (injury) problems you have to work better and harder. I have to think about different ways on the pitch and find the balance without and with the ball, which I like (to do) as a coach. I can’t change my DNA but without eight players you have to find different solutions to keep our style and our idea as much as possible. We have to transform problems into opportunities.”

Although there was some positive injury news for the Seagulls as defensive duo Igor and Adam Webster return to contention, De Zerbi is still without six key players as they look to do the league double over Wolves.

Solly March, scorer of two goals in the win at Molineux, is a long-term absentee and is not expected to return to contention until later in the season after returning to light training following a serious knee injury in October. Fellow winger Kaoru Mitoma also remains on the sidelines and the Japan international is not expected to return to contention until next month.

Thigh injuries will also prevent Tariq Lamptey and on-loan Barcelona winger Ansu Fati from returning to De Zerbi's squad until the middle of February and the knee injuries sustained by Joel Veltman and Julio Enciso will keep them out of action for another four weeks. Of Brighton's injured players, Simon Adingra is believed to be closest to a return from a thigh injury but he is with the Ivory Coast squad at the African Cup of Nations.

Wolves absentees are largely down to three key players representing their countries after Hee-Chan Hwang was named in the South Korea squad for the AFC Asian Cup and Rayan Ait-Nouri and Boubacar Traore are at the African Cup of Nations with Algeria and Mali respectively. Joao Gomes will also miss out as he serves a suspension for the red card he received in the FA Cup third round draw at Brentford.