Brighton vs Brentford: Albion to be without three players, Brentford awaiting news on key midfielder

Before the break, Albion had been in good form, going unbeaten in their last five games, winning four and drawing one.

Their last game saw them book their place in the FA Cup semi-final with a 5-0 win over Grimsby at home, keeping them in the hunt for their first-ever piece of major silverware.

Since then, fourteen first-team players have been out on international duty for 10 different countries.

Midfielder Jeremy Sarmiento has returned from Ecuador with a fractured bone in his foot and is expected to be out a least a month.

Roberto De Zerbi confirmed that Tariq Lamptey was also unlikely to feature in Saturday’s game, but confirmed that the right-back had recovered from his knee problem.

Karou Mitoma and Evan Ferguson are expected to start this weekend, having both scored whilst away with their national teams.

Adam Lallana is ruled out until May with a thigh injury, but De Zerbi hopes the experienced midfielder will feature before the end of the season.

Brentford have been one of the Premier League’s surprise packages of this season. Thomas Frank’s men have lost just one game in their 15 league games, leading them to eighth in the table.

The Bees sit one place behind Brighton on the same number of points, having played two games more then the Seagulls.

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Both teams know that a win will take them four points behind fourth-placed Tottenham, who travel to Everton on Monday night (April 3).

Frank will be waiting for a late fitness test of on Vitaly Janelt, the defensive midfielder came off at half-time in Brentford 2-0 win at Southampton on March 15 with a knee issue.

The West London outfit will be without the suspended Shandon Baptiste, thanks to his injury time red card in the 1-1 draw with Leicester, as well as missing the injured Kristoffer Ajer (calf) and Keane Lewis-Potter (knee) for the trip to the south coast.