Albion's smiling assassin is back.

The looming return to action of Jose Izquierdo is good news for the Seagulls' fight to avoid relegation, bad news for their rivals in the battle to stay in the Premier League.

Izquierdo has been back in training for a fortnight after missing most of the season with knee trouble.

Manager Chris Hughton described the Colombian left-winger earlier this month as the "missing link".

Hughton will be relieved when he can call upon the happy-go-lucky South American again to produce the unexpected.

Izquierdo has been restricted so far this season to nine appearances between the end of September and early December by a knee injury sustained playing for his country in last summer's World Cup and aggravated in the home win against Crystal Palace.

He has been grinning and bearing it according to Albion team-mate Mathew Ryan, who also played with Izquierdo for FC Brugge in Belgium.

The Argus: Keeper Ryan revealed to The Argus: "As frustrating as people would think it would be for him and maybe bring him down, he is always very upbeat and in a positive mood.

"I imagine under all that he is frustrated because of his knee but he doesn't show it. He is a very positive person and always upbeat.

"He knows he is going to be coming back with a lot of football still to play.

"He is a player that has that ability to change a game with one action so when he is fit and ready to return he's going to be a great addition to the matchday squad.

"No doubt he will come out and show his quality once again and more often than not will be out there to make the difference in games."

Izquierdo showed what he is capable of in his debut season with Albion.

He scored five goals in 36 games, putting him third in the chart behind Glenn Murray and Pascal Gross.

Three of those goals came from February onwards, Izquierdo finishing off a stylish team move which secured a crucial point at Stoke (below), preserved by a late penalty save by Ryan.

Izquierdo demonstrated his X Factor again with a spectacular strike from the left hand edge of the penalty area in the home win against West Ham.

The Argus: In his nine outings this season, Albion won five of them. Izquierdo's shot from a corner was diverted in by Beram Kayal for the only goal at Newcastle.

Ryan said: "Technically he has the ability to make the difference in games. Always when you have players like that they are great because in a certain moment they can win you a game, get you a draw or get you out of sticky situations.

"It's always great to have those players, but I believe we have also got plenty of quality to cope in his absence.

"But he'll definitely strength us and keep that competition for spots when he's fit again."

Albion were 12 points clear of the bottom three when they beat Palace in December.

Now the cushion has been eroded to three after one win and seven defeats in the last 11 league games.

The Seagulls are through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, with a chance to reach Wembley, but Ryan says the players are "hurting" from their league worries as they try to bounce back from losing at home to Burnley when they visit Leicster on Tuesday.

"There's no big egos or anything in the team anyway and we always stick together," Ryan said. "We're an honest group and we're very self critical of ourselves.

"Walking into the changing room then (after Burnley), we were laying down to each other that it's not good enough and we need to be better.

"We're hurting from this one, so we'll use it as motivation in order for the next one. We'll come out all guns blazing and do what we need to do in order to get ourselves out of this little rut."

It is a big few months for Izquierdo for club and country. Games and good form for Albion would help earn him a place in the Colombia squad for the Copa America, staged in Brazil between June 14 and July 7.

Izquierdo has a new national team manager, Carlos Queiroz having replaced Argentinian veteran Jose Pekerman.

The Argus: Queiroz, the Portugese former assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United was in charge of Izquierdo's fellow Albion winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh (No.18 above) when they reached the semi-finals of the Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates at the start of the year.

They were knocked out by Japan, one of Colombia's group rivals for the Copa America with Lionel Messi's Argentina and Ecuador. Japan and Qatar, the Asian Cup winners, have accepted special invites.

Colombia have won the Copa America once, in 2001.

With Izquierdo back there is a better chance that, by then, Albion will still be in the Premier League.