Gus Poyet is ready to welcome Craig Mackail-Smith back to his Albion matchday squad as he plans to take on Chelsea.

Poyet is happy with progress made by Mackail-Smith, who has had a back problem, and left-back Marcos Painter (hamstring).

The Seagulls host European club champions Chelsea in a prestigious friendly at The Amex on Saturday.

Poyet said this morning: "If Macca comes though without any problems today and tomorrow he has a chance to play.

"Marcos has been training for the last two weeks quite strongly.

"He has been running and doing all the power work and all the exercises to make sure he comes back stronger than before.

"They (the medical team) asked me for an extra few days so on Monday he will start training with the team but you can see he is doing everything.

"He is running, sprinting, stopping, changing directions, kicking the ball.

"Apart from playing football he is doing everything else.

"Macca's injury was less and he was ready earlier so he is training wth us."

Poyet remains hopeful of making a new signing by the time Chelsea visit.

Asked if there had been progress in the transfer market, he said: "We are moving closer because you need to speed up the negotiations.

"Let's hope we can get one at least before Saturday."

Poyet's search for a new striker was made more urgent after Will Hoskins was ruled out for an estimated six weeks by a foot injury.