Brighton defender Shane Duffy out for at least six weeks with broken foot
Monday 6 March 2017 10:22, UK
Brighton's Championship title hopes have suffered a setback after it was confirmed defender Shane Duffy has suffered a broken metatarsal.
The centre-half limped off in the closing stages of Saturday's 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
Ahead of Tuesday's meeting with Rotherham, manager Chris Hughton has confirmed the Republic of Ireland international will have surgery and will be out for at least six weeks.
That means Duffy will miss his country's World Cup qualifier with Wales in Dublin on March 24 and the home friendly against Iceland four days later.
Hughton said: "He's fractured his fifth metatarsal and will have an operation, probably tomorrow (Tuesday). We're probably looking at a minimum of six weeks. He's a big loss."
Losing Duffy is another blow for Brighton, who have lost ground on league leaders Newcastle.
Having lost at home to Rafael Benitez's team last Tuesday, they were then well beaten by Forest as they suffered back-to-back defeats in the league for the first time since September.
Brighton are now five points behind Newcastle, although the latter's 3-1 weekend success at Huddersfield means Hughton's side are still six points ahead of the third-placed Yorkshire club.
