Will Hoskins has been reassured he still has a future with Albion.

Boss Gus Poyet has revealed the injured striker, out of contract in the summer, will almost certainly still be with the Seagulls next season.

Hoskins had surgery in Germany last week to repair cruciate and medial knee ligament damage sustained in the recent home draw with Blackburn Rovers.

Poyet told The Argus: “Everything went all right. We are expecting, if everything goes well, for him to be running with us in pre-season and I think he has got a great chance to be ready for the start of next season.

“We’ve had a chat. We still think of him very highly. He’s had an injury and in the past we have been quite respectful with people finishing their contracts. I think he will stay here but we need to make a formal decision.

“There are different circumstances. If somebody is not playing and you try to move him on and he doesn’t want to go and there is a kind of confrontation then that player is unlucky and we can’t do anything about that.

“When you have players like in the past with Tommy Elphick and Alan Navarro you look after them in those situations. Everything looks like it will not be a problem for Will to stay.”

Meanwhile, Will Buckley resumes training with the first team today but he faces a fight to be available for Huddersfield’s visit to The Amex on Saturday.

The right winger was ruled out of last Saturday’s 1-0 home win over Burnley by a virus.

Poyet said: “He’s a bit better, still not fully recovered. We will see how he trains in the next three days.”