Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler has hinted striker Joao Pedro will be fit enough to feature in Saturday’s Premier League game against Ipswich.
The 22-year-old has made an eye-catching start to the new season, scoring a late winner against Manchester United, before earning his side a point with the goal that capped a man of the match display against Arsenal prior to the international break.
Pedro played 45 minutes for Brazil in Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat against Paraguay and faces a race against time to have recovered in time to play against the newly promoted Tractor Boys.
Hurzeler, however, is confident his medical team will be able to ensure the former Watford star will be ready to start against a side who are without a win so far this term.
He said: ‘I think we have a great medical department who will do everything for the regeneration of the players. Also the players themselves, they are professional enough to know what they have to do to be fully recovered for Saturday.
‘Of course, they can’t train today with the team but they will be back on the training ground. Then it is about giving them a good recovery and hopefully, they can train tomorrow and then of course they are part of the squad.’
Hurzeler also provided an encouraging update on summer signing Matt O’Riley who is recovering from surgery after injuring his ankle on his debut last month.
‘He’s in very good spirits,’ said the Brighton boss. ‘He has a great character, a great attitude, so immediately after the surgery he was very, very positive.
‘He is around us in the training ground, he is doing his rehab already and I think he will be coming back quite fast.’
On how he used the international break, meanwhile, Hurzeler, whose side have taken seven points from a possible nine so far, said: ‘For me it was time to reflect, to re-analyse the first few weeks. I think it is very important to reflect yourself, to reflect what is going good so far and where we can improve. That was the first thing I did.
‘The second thing was to plan the next phase and the next week because now we have a lot of games in the next period of time. We have a lot of home games so we want to use this chance.
‘For me it was more reflection and planning. Of course, I also had one or two minutes for myself.’
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