Never mind a week being a long time in politics. Seven days seemed like an eternity for Albion's Adam El-Abd.

Last Friday morning, during training, the young defender received the news he was longing to hear. He was back in the team for the home game against Leicester.

The Friday before, El-Abd felt as if his world was caving in. Hauled into the Withdean office of manager Mark McGhee, he was axed from the squad travelling to Coventry.

A copy of that day's Argus gave the game away. El-Abd's picture appeared on page seven, accompanied by the headline: 'Albion star fined after a drunken row in nightclub'.

El-Abd had been arrested outside the Honey Club on Brighton seafront during the Seagulls' Easter break from their fight for Championship survival.

He later agreed to pay an £80 fixed penalty for being drunk and disorderly.

El-Abd, breaking his silence over the incident, is full of remorse and regret. He has vowed it will never happen again.

"I was very down that weekend," he admitted. "I was absolutely gutted. To be completely bombed from the squad was hard for me to take, a footballer with nothing to do at the weekend.

"All the lads were away, my girlfriend was away, my family were away. I had nothing to do. All I did was sit indoors and get depressed.

"What I did was wrong. When it comes to going out on the town you sometimes forget you are a role model, representing the club. You forget and behave like a normal 20-year-old would.

"It cannot be done and it's a lesson learned. It was a huge embarrassment to myself, my family and the club. I'll make sure that it never happens again, because it was a nightmare."

Before the news broke, El-Abd had already apologised in a telephone conversation with his Spanish-based Egyptian father, a former referee.

"I knew I'd done wrong, it was so blatant," he said. "I want to put it behind me now and get on with playing football."

El-Abd only has to look inside the Albion dressing room for inspiration. Adam Hinshelwood has established himself in the first team and become an England under-21 candidate since making front page news for a drink-driving incident.

Ironically, El-Abd's nightclub row came on a night out with team-mates sympathising over the plight of Hinshelwood, who is out until Christmas with cruciate knee ligament damage.

"He's been magnificent this season," said El-Abd. "I would just like to emulate what he has done.

"People don't know how hard I train, what I do to keep fit and get myself into the team.

"They don't see that. All they see is the bad headlines and that portrays a bad picture, a wrong picture in my opinion. But when you choose to be a footballer you have to put up with that."

The healing process has already begun for El-Abd. After Albion's narrow defeat at Coventry, he was restored to the squad by McGhee for the trip to Preston three days later and came off the bench in the second half.

Last Saturday, McGhee turned to the Brighton-born powerhouse to look after Leicester danger man David Connolly, his first start since playing against his beloved Nottingham Forest at Withden at the end of January.

"I found out on Friday morning when he announced the team in training," El-Abd said. "I was surprised to a certain extent, but I feel I deserved my chance with the amount of injuries the squad has sustained.

"I'd waited enough time for it. I was pleased to get the shirt back on and help us to a valuable point.

"For the first hour my job was just to man mark Connolly. I think he had a couple of shots in the first half, but apart from that he was fairly quiet.

"I was frustrating him and a couple of times he actually lashed out, but the referee and linesmen didn't see it.

"Concentration was the main thing, because he is a very lively player. The moment you switch off he'll take advantage.

"After an hour we went to 4-4-2, I played as an orthodox right-sided centre half and it went okay.

"I think we deserved three points. We felt very hard done by with only one, although we were very pleased with our performance.

"I know Leicester haven't been doing well this season, but they've got Premiership players and we dominated them from start to finish."

El-Abd is anxiously waiting to discover whether he will keep his place for Saturday's trip to Burnley.

"You never know," he said. "Against Forest I came in and did okay and we kept a clean sheet, but I hadn't played since then apart from as a sub.

"Hopefully I am picked again and I can justify it with a good performance."