Albion's Spanish star Vicente faces a race to prove his fitness for Saturday’s FA Cup clash against Newcastle after another injury setback.

The former Valencia playmaker has been on the bench for the Seagulls’ last two Championship games at The Amex against Bristol City and Southampton.

But he was absent from the squad for last Saturday’s 2-1 win at Peterborough after sitting out the FA Cup ties against Wrexham.

Boss Gus Poyet revealed to The Argus: “He was fit to play half-an-hour in both games (Bristol and Southampton) but because of the situation in both games I couldn’t play him and then he had a different kind of problem in his legs, so I couldn’t really make him travel to Peterborough.

“I am looking forward to seeing him training with me but it’s a bit more worrying. It’s not something I can control or a simple case where I will know for sure, so we need to wait and see.”

Vicente won a penalty against Liverpool on his Albion debut as a sub against Liverpool in the Carling Cup at The Amex in September.

The 30-year-old also scored on his first start the following month at Ipswich but a series of injury niggles have restricted him to five appearances for the Seagulls and none since mid-October.

Poyet is pleased with the way Albion have coped with injuries to key players like Vicente and broken leg victim Gary Dicker.

He said: “I cannot imagine myself if we had ten or 15 points less, because of all the injuries and situations with Vicente and company. Then it would be crazy. Fortunately for us the players have been quite good and put us in the situation we are in now, so it’s credit to them really.

“With everybody fit it would be very difficult to make a decision about the starting eleven and without having those difficult decisions to make we’ve been quite good, which is great.

“It doesn’t matter your name or who you are, it’s how you perform.”

Poyet will have a strong squad to select from for Newcastle’s visit, with the injury list gradually clearing up.

“It’s a good time, because we need 18,” he said. “For the first time in a month and a half we had a couple of senior players out of the squad last Saturday who were fit, Ryan Harley and Romain Vincelot.”