One player who has had a tough time over the last season-and-a-half is Shane Duffy.

The 28-year-old defender had found his game time limited at Albion since head coach Graham Potter came to the club.

He went from being a regular choice under former manager Chris Hughton alongside skipper Lewis Dunk to playing just 19 times last season.

After starting four of the five games, Duffy went on to feature in four of the ten matches after the resumption of the Premier League in June.

Add that he only played the full 90 minutes in one of those games, which was the 3-0 defeat against Manchester United at the Amex.

With Ben White returning to the club over the summer after an impressive loan spell at Leeds and Albion adding Joel Veltman to their options, Duffy fell further down the pecking order.

In September he joined Scottish Champions and his childhood club Celtic on a season-long loan.

He began life at The Hoops well scoring in his first two games as Celtic beat Ross County (5-0) and St Mirren (2-1).

Duffy and Celtic went on to win their next five games, three in the league and two in Europa League qualifying.

That left the defender having not tasted defeat in his first seven games and also helped Celtic to qualify for the Europa League group stages.

However, things started to go downhill for them when Duffy got his first taste of the Old Firm derby last month.

Rangers emerged victorious with two goals from former Albion defender Connor Goldson.

This led to Celtic going on a run of five games without a win, after draws with Aberdeen (3-3) and Lille (2-2), plus defeats to AC Milan (3-1) and Sparta Prague (4-1).

In that period Duffy came under scrutiny for his performances against Aberdeen, Milan and most recently Sparta Prague last Thursday.

This resulted in him starting on the bench for Celtic in their 4-1 win against Motherwell on Sunday.

Duffy came off the bench in the 78th minute for Neil Lennon’s side in the victory at Fir Park.

The Celtic boss said after the game that “Duffy needed a rest”.

He is currently on international duty with the Republic of Ireland, where he will hope to rediscover his form.

They begin with a friendly against England at Wembley tonight, followed by Nations League games away to Wales on Sunday and Bulgaria at home three days later.

Ireland boss Stephen Kenny was asked if he still had faith in his vice-captain?

To which Kenny responded that he believes in Duffy.

He said: "I have a list that my fitness coach and analyst compiled in relation to the amount of minutes and games our players have played.

"Shane Duffy has played, from starting the first game for me in Bulgaria (in September), 18 games in that period (prior to the Motherwell match).

"That's 18 games between club and country in that period, which is four more than any other player.

"He didn't play (from the start) yesterday, he came on at the end (in the 78th minute). That's fine. Maybe he needed a rest.

"We'll have a look - I'll see how he comes in, I'll chat to him and see how he is.

"But if you're asking me, have I got faith in Shane, I definitely do. I believe in him.

"I think his performances for Ireland overall, (under) three different managers, have been to a very high standard and I think we should appreciate him."

Duffy's Republic of Ireland and Albion teammate Aaron Connolly has also backed him.

He said: "He's a brilliant centre-half and he has shown that for many, many years, so a couple of games is not going to change what everyone thinks of him.

"He's shown for Ireland how good he is and he's shown for Brighton how good he was and how highly rated he was."

With Duffy not being in Potter’s plans for this campaign, does he have a future at Albion?

When you look at the depth Albion have at centre half in Dunk, Adam Webster, White, Veltman and Dan Burn, it would hard to see Duffy getting any game time.