BOSS Chris Hughton has welcomed Albion’s extra firepower for the fight for Premier League safety following the return to the club of Leo Ulloa.

The Argentinian marksman is back with the Seagulls from Leicester for an undisclosed loan fee for the rest of the season.

Ulloa goes straight into the squad for tomorrow night’s key trip to fellow strugglers Southampton to compete for places with Glenn Murray, Tomer Hemed and Sam Baldock, who has recently returned to contention after summer calf surgery.

New club record buy Jurgen Locadia, signed earlier this month for £14 million from PSV Eindhoven, is expected to start training with the rest of the squad on Monday after arriving with a hamstring injury.

Hughton told The Argus: “We are looking at Jurgen hopefully training with the team Monday and he is going to be two or three weeks.

“We are certainly two strikers better off plus Sam Baldock, who is that little bit fitter and closer now, so we are in a far better option offensively than we were a month ago.”

Ulloa, Murray and Hemed are similar-type target men but Hughton believes he now has far more scope to change personnel and tactics.

He said: “Locadia would be the one that you see as different. They (Ulloa, Murray, Hemed) would be more number nines without Locadia’s pace but all three have different qualities.

“We wanted to have really good options up front and that also gives us good options from the bench.

“Once this (transfer) window closes on Wednesday there are 13 games after that and we have to do well enough to make sure we have got more points than at least three other teams, so you want as many options as possible.

“It gives us good options in what we are able to do on the bench, formations and ultimately to try to get as many points as you can.

“We are getting in Leo somebody with good experience that has gone through good and bad periods at Leicester and is hungry to be involved. If he had been playing more regularly he wouldn’t have been available.”

Albion saw off competition from at home and abroad to re-sign Ulloa on a deal with no obligations once his loan expires.

Arch-rivals Crystal Palace and Aston Villa – who attempted to hijack it over the weekend – both wanted him permanently, while the 31-year-old was also a target in Spain for Leganes and Celta Vigo.

Albion, interested only in an initial loan, seized their chance once Leicester’s stance shifted from insisting on a permanent exit for Ulloa to accepting a temporary option.

Ulloa, who scored 26 goals in 58 games for Albion from January 2013 to July 2014, said of the chances of returning permanently: “I have to do a good job and after that if it’s okay we’ll make a decision.

“But I have to give my best in the next three-and-a-half months. I don’t have to show anything to people, I just want to help the team.”

Ulloa, on target on debut for Albion and Leicester, is likely to be on the bench at St Mary’s.

He said: “I am fit and very much available but we’ll see what happens, what the manager wants to do.”