Graham Potter admits injury blow to Brighton defender ahead of West Ham and Man City

Joel Veltman has been excellent for Brighton this season but missed the 2-1 loss at Wolves with a calf injury.

Brighton will hope to have the Dutch international available against the Hammers, especially as skipper Lewis Dunk will be suspended following his red card at Wolves.

“We hope so (he will be back for West Ham)," said Potter. "It was just a tight calf, a strain on it. He has an outside chance he could be back for West Ham.”

Veltman's injury saw a rare start for Iranian international Alireza Jahanbakhsh at Molineux yesterday. Jahanbakhsh looked quite lively in the right wing back role but was withdrawn after the break as Brighton reshuffled their formation after Dunk's red card.

“I thought he was doing well and contributed well in the first half," said Potter.

“I thought it was a bit of a slow start from him, but he grew into the game and contributed going forward.

“But as soon as we went down to ten men, we felt we need to put a couple of midfield players on for some attacking players.”

A 2-1 defeat to Wolves on Sunday means Albion are still 10 points clear of the bottom three although Fulham have the opportunity to close the gap when they play their game in hand tonight at home to Burnley.

As well as Dunk, Neal Maupay also faces a suspension for the West Ham match after he was shown a red card as the players left the field for foul and abusive language.

"We will go into Saturday's game against West Ham determined to get three points," said Albion defender Ben White. "We've got two suspensions to deal with now but we have to go again.

“We need to get the points we need ourselves, we've never wanted to rely on other teams."

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