ALBION’S German rock Uwe Huenemeier has been backed to fill the boots of broken foot bone victim Shane Duffy.

Central defender Duffy, pictured, has surgery today after fracturing a metatarsal in Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest.

The Seagulls’ record buy will miss at least eight of the remaining 11 Championship matches, as well as the Republic of Ireland’s key World Cup qualifier against Wales in Dublin later this month.

Huenemeier, hit by a serious groin injury last season, is expected to replace Duffy at rock-bottom Rotherham tonight after one league appearance in 15 months and a sprinkling of cup outings.

Liam Rosenior, restored to the defence at Forest following seven months out with ankle damage, said: “Shane’s been immense since he came to the club.

“He’s been absolutely outstanding every game and he’s forged a really fantastic partnership with (Lewis) Dunk. I can’t see any better centre-half partnerships in the league.

“From a personal point of view, I’m devastated for him because he now misses probably the most important part of the season and I know how he’s going to be feeling.

“But that’s why you have a squad. We’ve got Connor (Goldson) out with a heart condition which is a real shame for him, but we’ve got Uwe Huenemeier who’s captained a team in the top league in Germany (SC Paderborn) and also won promotion from the second Bundesliga, which for me if not as strong as the Championship is definitely up there.

“As a character and professional, he’s probably the best we have at the club. He hasn’t played many games this season, but he trains fantastically and when people do that, they get opportunities.

“If you work hard in life, things all of a sudden happen. You move into a position where you can affect things and now Uwe’s got that opportunity to come in and show his quality.

“This is why teams spend millions of pounds on players and have squads of 24 players. You have to be ready for these things.

“Luckily, we’re more than ready to cope. Shane’s a fantastic player, but we’ve missed fantastic players throughout the whole of last season and this season.

“It’s the strength and togetherness of the group that will hopefully see us through.”

Skipper Bruno was switched to partner Dunk in two league wins and two draws with three clean sheets at the start of the season, before Duffy had been signed by Blackburn and when Huenemeier and Goldson were also both sidelined.

Moving the veteran Spaniard would, however, cause further disruption to a defence already without first and second-choice left-backs Gaetan Bong (knee) and Seb Pocognoli (groin) and place a heavy responsibility on the inexperienced shoulders of on-loan Chelsea teenager Fikayo Tomori.