STEVE Sidwell has saluted the Premier League progress of Davy Propper in Albion's engine room.

Sidwell has predicted the Dutch international midfielder's influence will keep on growing as the season develops.

Propper, bought from PSV Eindhoven just before the start of the season for £10 million, has established an effective partnership with Dale Stephens after a slow start.

He has also scored twice in his last three appearances for his country and will maintain his ever-present record with Stephens against Southampton at the Amex on Sunday (1.30pm) following an assist for Jose Izquierdo's first goal in English football in the 3-0 win at West Ham.

Sidelined Sidwell told The Argus: "When he first came it took him a few games to get up to speed with the Premier League, as it may have done with the majority of the squad.

"More so with him I think it was the profile, the money paid for him. There was more of a spotlight on him, but we can all see now what a good player he is.

"He is complementing Dale in there. The two of them work off each other really well and I think slowly, slowly, game by game, you are going to see more and more of him.

"He is still finding his feet but there is a lot more to come from him in all-round play as well as scoring goals, because we know he can do that, so it's encouraging.

"With the more games that go by and playing week in, week out, the more he is going to get comfortable, especially at home.

"I think we'll find he'll be playing vital parts in the majority of goals, whether that is starting them where he has won the ball back or with assists or even scoring himself."

Fellow midfielder Sidwell, 34, has put no timescale on his return from a serious back injury which required urgent surgery and has prevented him from playing a part for Albion so far in the top flight.

The Premier League veteran, speaking at a football tournament at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy run by the club's charitable arm Albion In The Community, revealed: "I've had a back problem for probably about six months now.

"It started as a back ache. Over pre-season it got worse and it reached a point where it was unbearable.

"I had a weekend where it (the pain) literally went from nought to a hundred. I came in on the Monday and saw the physios, on the Wednesday I was rushed into surgery, so it was serious, a prolapsed disc pressing the nerve.

"There's no real time frame you can put on it with a nerve injury. It's not like a muscle injury. It takes as long as it takes. I'm getting there. It's slower than I anticipated, but I've got to make sure I do it right and do the building blocks in stages, because if you skip a couple it makes it worse."

* AITC provides free regular football sessions for young people and teenagers in areas of high-deprivation throughout Sussex. In the last 12 months more than 2,000 young people have taken part in a Premier League Kicks session with AITC.