Shane Duffy is poised to end his three-month injury absence – barring any reaction to a car accident.

Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill wants to use the Albion centre-back in the middle of a three-man defence against Mexico this week.

Duffy has trained after both he and Eunan O’Kane escaped injury when the latter’s 4x4 was badly damaged in a shunt.

Seagulls boss Chris Hughton resisted any temptation to re-introduce Duffy at the end of the Championship season after a fractured metatarsal had healed.

But the former Everton stopper will feature for his country in the early hours of Friday, our time, barring any delayed after-effects during yesterday’s flight to New Jersey.

O’Neill said: “When I heard the news about Shane and Eunan it was a bit of a concern.

“I didn’t know if they would make it but I’m delighted they have done so.

“We’ll see how they come through that and, for Shane, it’s very much a case of playing some football because he hasn’t played for quite a number of weeks.

“He’s over the injury. He was saying he was fit and available for the last couple of weeks (of the season) but the manager (Hughton) decided to leave it and get himself fully right for these games.

“So I think it’s a good opportunity if he gets through that (the Mexico game).

“Obviously it’s very important to get some football in before the big game against Austria.”

Duffy has not played since going down in pain towards the end of Albion’s 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on March 4.

He is highly rated by the Irish, who want him back up to speed by the time they face Austria in a World Cup qualifier in Dublin a week on Saturday.

They also have a friendly at home to Uruguay before then.

Meanwhile Albion midfielder Oliver Norwood has been named, as expected, in the latest Northern Ireland squad as they prepare to face New Zealand and Azerbaijan.