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It appears that Brighton & Hove Albion will not have to deal with facing either Chris Smalling or Renato Sanches on Thursday.

This comes from Gianluca Di Marzio, who took to Twitter to link to an article making it clear the two players will be missing from the Europa League clash.

The centre-back was on the bench in the 4-0 win over Brighton last week in Rome, as he is returning from a very long lay off, and Daniele De Rossi is taking his time bringing him back, with him suffering a knock to his ankle in training.

As for the Portuguese midfielder, he was sat alongside the English centre-back during that game as well, but neither will be present for the return leg at the Amex due to a muscle strain.

Neither trained on Tuesday, and it’s made clear they will not be travelling to England with their teammates for the game.

Whether that affects Brighton’s and Roberto De Zerbi’s plans for the game remains to be seen, as the Italian manager will have prepared for all possibilities, knowing that there is a huge deficit to turnaround this week.

We will now have to wait and see if the Seagulls can pull off the feat.