ALBION boss Oscar Garcia has revealed he rested Andrew Crofts, left, to spare him from burnout.
The five-goal midfielder, joint top scorer in the Championship for the Seagulls with five goals, was relegated to the bench for the 0-0 home draw with Huddersfield.
Kemy Agustien took Crofts' place, ending a run of 18 starts in a row for the Welsh international stretching back to mid-August.
Head coach Oscar told The Argus: “He’s played 90 minutes all season. Now in this period we have a lot of games. We will need everyone involved, everybody fit enough to play.”
Peter Brezovan retained his place in goal on Saturday, despite the recovery of regular No.1 Tomasz Kuszczak from a strained stomach muscle, and Will Buckley was preferred to Kazenga LuaLua to replace departed loan winger Craig Conway.
Oscar said: “Tomasz had a bad injury in a bad area and we want to keep everybody fit enough for the next games.
“Will can play 90 minutes and Kazenga has come back from a long (knee) injury. He’s not fit enough to play for 90 minutes.”
LuaLua, booked when he came on, now has two more matches to avoid another yellow card along with Crofts and second-choice right-back Inigo Calderon in order to escape a ban.
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