Chris Hughton admits it may prove difficult to grant Connor Goldson his wish for a loan move from Albion this month.

Goldson made his fourth start in a year in Monday's FA Cup victory over Crystal Palace.

The central defender, 25, is desperate for more game time and the Seagulls are keen to accomodate him.

Several Championship clubs are interested, headed by Ipswich, who almost borrowed Goldson in the summer following his full recovery from major heart surgery.

But Albion need a suitable replacement before letting Goldson go and Hughton says that will be "difficult", with Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy so dominant in the centre of Albion's Premier League defence.

Hughton told The Argus: "The honest answer is I don't know. We are trying. He is a player that we like but he hasn't played regularly for a year-and-a-half.

"He wants to play more games than he is playing, which I understand. From our point of view as well, with the investment we have in him, we would like him to go and get regular games at the best level that he can.

"So if it doesn't happen then we have got a very good centre-half. If it does happen it means we have brought in somebody that we think is certainly of his level, probably on a loan.

"That's the difficult bit, bringing somebody in that's going to be pushing to play but, of course, not guaranteed to play."