Albion will hope to welcome back another major tournament winner after Simon Adingra enjoyed a great night at AFCON.

The Seagulls winger helped hosts Ivory Coast beat DR Congo 1-0 in the semi-finals.

It was his first start of the tournament after he recovered from a recent hamstring issue.

Adingra had come on as sub in three previous games, including a very brief run-out in the 4-0 defeat by Equatorial Guinea which had appeared to end the hosts’ participation in the competition.

He had 80 minutes in the semi as his side won despite the absence of four suspended players.

Ivory Coast sacked their manager before being reprieved two days later as the fourth best third-placed finishers when Chris Hughton’s Ghana slipped up.

They then came back from behind to beat Senegal in the last 16 and needed a 90th-minute equaliser by Adingra and a winner with the last kick of the match to get past Mali in the quarter-final.

Sebastien Haller’s goal has seen them reach the final for a fifth time and if interim boss Emerse Fae, who replaced Jean-Louis Gasset in mid-tournament, can inspire them to victory over Nigeria on Sunday, it will cap surely the most remarkable turn of fortunes in any major international tournament.

Albion gave Alexis Mac Allister a memorable welcome back to Lancing when he won the World Cup with Argentina last season.

It would appear Adingra will be back for the trip to Sheffield United a week on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Kaoru Mitoma is back in full training with Albion after returning from the Asian Cup.