Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Fabian Hürzeler discussed the injury recovery status of Kaoru Mitoma, Yankuba Minteh, and Pascal Struijk after the team's final pre-season match, a 1-0 victory over Bologna.

Brighton & Hove Albion is about to enter the official competitive phase of the new season. They will travel to Norway on Thursday to face Tromsø in the first leg of the Europa Conference League play-offs. Following that, the team will host Aston Villa at the American Express Community Stadium on August 23 for their first Premier League match of the new season, and then play the second leg of the play-offs at home against Tromsø on August 27.

Currently, Carlos Baleba is out with an ankle injury, Yankuba Minteh has a leg injury, and Kaoru Mitoma is dealing with a hamstring issue.

Additionally, defender Pascal Struijk, who joined from Leeds United this summer for £18 million, is also likely to miss Thursday's match. He has already missed two warm-up matches against Roma and Bologna due to an unspecified injury.

Regarding Mitoma's recovery, Hürzeler said: "Mitoma is getting closer and closer to returning."

As for Minteh, Hürzeler revealed that his absence will be longer: "Unfortunately, Minteh will be out for a longer period. Don't ask me exactly how long, but it will definitely be several weeks."

When discussing Struijk, Hürzeler stated: "He has started training now, so hopefully he will be back in the squad for the next game."

With the Europa Conference League play-offs approaching, Hürzeler said that he has a clearer idea of how to set up the team for Thursday's match against Tromsø.

Hürzeler said: "Yes, the longer you are with the team, the clearer the whole picture becomes. But overall, we have the same foundation as last season, just with some new players added, so we are quite clear about the current situation of the team. Today we also played a good game. We controlled the game, could have scored more goals, and also kept a clean sheet."

"The players, especially in the first half, seemed a bit tired. I think you can feel that this pre-season preparation has lasted a long time. Our training this week was also very tough. But overall, it was a good pre-season preparation, and today we performed well and concluded the entire pre-season on a good note. Now the real season begins. It's up to us to prove what results all this pre-season work has achieved."

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