Albion boss Gus Poyet has backed Lewis Dunk to solve his centre-half crisis.

Dunk partners skipper Gordon Greer against Spurs today in the official opening of The Amex, with Adam El-Abd and Tommy Elphick both injured.

Poyet will happily go with the 19-year-old at the start of the season in the Championship, with fellow youth team product Steve Cook as back-up, if he cannot find the right player to cover for the long-term absences of El-Abd (foot) and Elphick (Achilles).

The manager revealed to The Argus: “I’ve got no problem at all with playing Dunky. If I had a problem we would have a centre-half here right now. We know Dunky a lot now. He is a better player Saturday three o’clock than Monday to Friday and that’s good. It would be terrible if it was the opposite.

“I know how strong he is when he plays with Gordon as well. He is a better player then so at the moment it isn’t a problem.

“It is one of the risks we are taking at the moment and it’s up to him to prove me right or wrong.”

Dunk impressed Poyet from the moment he watched him in an FA Youth Cup tie against Everton, shortly after taking charge.

He made eight appearances for the first team last season and has come back from the summer break bigger and stronger.

Poyet also has faith in 20-year-old Cook but he will be hoping Dunk does not get injured trying to keep Tottenham’s star-studded attack at bay.

He said: “What I didn’t want is to have a good go with Dunky and then something happens today and you need to jump in with somebody else from the development group.

“Cooky has been doing unbelievably well. He has improved so much in the last six months. I am very pleased with his performance and he has been training daily with the first team.

“Ideally we would have someone in, just in case, but if it’s just a body I prefer Cooky all day long. He knows how we play and how we defend.

“He is in great form at the moment so either we get a player who is going to play and take one of the two centre-half places or it’s kind of cover, loan or whatever. That is a very difficult one.”

Meanwhile, Poyet is preparing to loan out top prospects from the development group after the Football League cut the number of substitutes from seven to five.

He said: “We are going to have to loan out one or two players, because they are not going to be part of the 16 week in week out. It has completely changed my approach.”