Albion manager Mark McGhee today shrugged off his injury crisis and a bum deal for Charlie Oatway.

The hamstring strain sustained by Oatway in Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Reading robs the Seagulls of six senior professionals for tonight's opening home game in the Coca-Cola Championship against another of the promoted sides, Plymouth Argyle.

The central midfielder is also expected to miss Saturday's visit of Coventry but McGhee is relieved the injury to Oatway is not more serious.

"It's a strain quite high up, in the cheek area of his backside," McGhee said.

"It's not as bad as it could have been. Hamstrings can sometimes take six weeks.

"We have options. We've got Gary Hart, who we could bring into the team, Nathan Jones, we could change Dan Harding into midfield or the way we play.

"We are not complaining. Somebody mentioned to me after the game on Saturday about the injury list.

"It's not something we've even considered.

"People like Dean Blackwell and Simon Rodger are longer term injuries anyway, so I've not considered them as part of the squad.

"I'm working on the basis at the moment that Charlie and Richard Carpenter are the only injured players that would definitely be in the team."

Maheta Molango is likely to continue as the only orthodox striker against the Second Division champions, with Jake Robinson on the bench again after the 17-year-old scored his first League goal as a substitute at Reading.

Leon Knight, on target in both matches against Argyle last season, is banned until the trip to Wigan on Saturday week.

"Plymouth have just come up like ourselves, so it's a winnable game," McGhee said.

"We were all right on Saturday and there is a lot of improvement to come."