Brighton Duo Sam Baldock & Beram Kayal to Miss Man City Game With Latter Out for 10-12 Weeks

Brighton's Sam Baldock and Beram Kayal will miss Saturday's opening Premier League game against Manchester City through injury, the club have confirmed.

Midfielder Kayal suffered a broken fibula during Sunday's 3-2 friendly defeat against Atletico Madrid, and is set to miss up to 12 weeks.

The 29-year-old, who joined the Seagulls from Celtic in January 2015, played on but was replaced at half-time.

"We've had some bad news on Beram Kayal, who came off at half-time in Sunday's game," said Brighton boss Chris Hughton, quoted by talkSPORT.

"It's a small break in his fibula, which was operated on today. We expect him to be out for something like eight to ten weeks.

"It's bad bad news for us and him. The only good thing is it's a clean break, so there are no complications."

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Striker Baldock, meanwhile, is still recovering from calf surgery, while Anthony Knockaert is available having shaken off ankle ligament damage.

"Sam Baldock had surgery on his calf in the summer, and that's just the process of time really," said Hughton. "He's back into part training, but we're still expecting him to be out for a little while.

"He had to rest for a good period in the summer so everything was later. So we still expect that to be a little longer with Sam.

"Anthony is fine, he played part of a game yesterday behind closed doors. So he's fit and up and running."

On the game against big spending City, Hughton added: "The outcome we'd like this season is to have a go and to make sure that in our first season in the Premier League we give it the best we can.

"[We want to] have a real good go, and that we can have no complaints at the end of the season that we didn't do enough."