Albion boss Chris Hughton wants his international stars to have game-time for their countries.

Hughton is happy for the likes of Tomer Hemed to stay sharp for the promotion run-in after struggling for minutes with the Seagulls.

Hemed and Beram Kayal are with Israel for Friday night’s World Cup qualifier in Spain.

Striker Hemed has started only one of Albion’s last seven matches, while midfielder Kayal is back from a broken ankle.

Northern Ireland midfielder Oliver Norwood has not started for the Seagulls since early February and England under-21s winger Solly March has been on the bench for the last seven games.

Hughton told The Argus: “For somebody like Tomer you hope he plays. He’s found it difficult to get the game-time he would like, so it’s that balance.

“Again, you hope Ollie plays, because he hasn’t got so many minutes with us, and Solly.

“As much as you don’t want them to get injured, I’m also quite happy for them to play.”

March and Albion’s No.3 goalkeeper Christian Walton are with England under-21s for games against Germany and Denmark on Friday and Monday.

Norwood and the Irish have a World Cup qualifier at home to Norway on Sunday.

On-loan Fikayo Tomori is also on duty for England’s under-20s for a trio of friendlies in France between Thursday and Tuesday.

No.2 keeper Niki Maenpaa, back on the bench at Leeds on Saturday, and winger Jiri Skalak have not been selected by Finland and the Czech Republic respectively.

Albion have begun the fortnight-long international break with a training trip to Valencia in eastern Spain until tomorrow.

Seven of their eight remaining matches are in April, starting with Blackburn’s visit on Saturday week.

Hughton said: “I think we all need it (break), with the amount of games we’ve got in April.

“It’s the same for everybody. It will affect some clubs more than others, with the amount of players going away.

“You always use it in the best way you can and we hope it’s come at the right time.”