Experienced duo join Lewis Dunk in missing Brighton's visit to Southampton: Positional change made due to surprise absentees

Lewis Dunk, Danny Welbeck and Joel Veltman are all absent from the matchday squad at St Mary’s Stadium this afternoon (Saturday, February 22).

Dunk’s absence is no surprise, as the captain suffered a rib injury in the FA Cup win against Chelsea, leaving the action at half-time, and subsequently missed the 3-0 league victory over the Blues.

The Athletic’s Andy Naylor reported that Welbeck, 33, ‘suffered a knock in training’, adding: “He has been rested with a view to being available for Tuesday's home game against Bournemouth.”

It remains to be seen why Veltman is missing.

Yasin Ayari and Joao Pedro both start, with Jack Hinshelwood filling in at right-back.

In better news, Pervis Estupinan and Solly March are both on the bench after recovering from muscular problems.

Albion have won five of their last seven games in all competitions, and bounced back from being thrashed 7-0 at Nottingham Forest to beat Chelsea in both league and FA Cup.

Hurzeler would not be drawn into talking on hopes for European qualification ahead of the Saints game, but said: “Internally, we have clear goals and clear vision.

“But it is game by game. The Premier League and our season has shown things go from here to here.

“We worked hard for this momentum and it’s now about keeping that.

“After the loss to Forest, we tried to get back the intensity from the start of the season.

“We lost this intensity and energy through the season so we said we want to go back to our roots, back to the things that made us strong

“We want to be a team that is very hard to beat. We play against Southampton but we also play against ourselves and our limits.

“I demand from my team that we go with this intensity against Chelsea, but also Southampton so we have no difference in our approach.”

James Milner (hamstring), Igor Julio (hamstring), Jason Steele (shoulder) and Ferdi Kadioglu (toe) remain sidelined.

Brighton: Bart Verbruggen, Tariq Lamptey, Jan Paul van Hecke, Adam Webster, Jack Hinshelwood, Carlos Baleba, Yasin Ayari, Yankuba Minteh, Georginio Rutter, Kaoru Mitoma, Joao Pedro

Substitutes: Carl Rushworth, Solly March, Brajan Gruda, Simon Adingra, Eiran Cashin, Diego Gomez, Mats Wieffer, Pervis Estupinan, Matt O’Riley