Jakub Moder registered in Brighton’s Premier League squad, could a return be soon?

Image via @OfficialBHAFC on Twitter

Yesterday morning heralded some positive news regarding the prospects of Jakub Moder, who as we all know has been suffering with a serious knee problem since April 2022, over 530 days ago. He returned to football pitch in some capacity when he was able to train lightly just prior to Christmas last year, and has been involved in one form or another in team training since March of this year, although Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi stressed that the end of last season came too soon for him.

Indeed, it looked for all the world like the start of this Premier League season had come too early for Moder as well, given Brighton remained tight-lipped on his recovery and whether he would at all have a part to play prior to the commencement of the 2023-24 campaign.

However, both Brighton’s Athletic correspondent Andy Naylor and some eagle-eyed Polish outlets had spotted that Moder has been registered by Brighton for the next stage of the Premier League. With the next chance coming in January, this gives you a pretty clear indication that Brighton think there is every chance Moder will be fit enough to feature in a matchday squad prior to the new year.

The social media team at Brighton cottoned on to this flurry of excitement about Moder, and posted a shot of him training today on their Twitter account.

Brighton will have a demanding schedule this season, given that they will be mostly playing Thursday - Sunday on account of their participation in the Europa League. Squad rotation will be relied upon you imagine, yet another reason the return of Moder may be imminent.

You do worry that after having spent so long out Moder will struggle to get back up to speed, and it may well sadly be the case that he isn’t the same player he was before the injury, something you do often see with players who miss more 12 months without playing. For both his sake and Poland’s, I hope this isn’t the case with Moder and he merely needs a few weeks to re-adapt.

If I had to make a prediction as to the first fixture where Moder may be named part of the squad, I would take an educated guess at Brighton’s Carabao Cup match against Chelsea in just under a fortnight. This might still be way too soon, but the English League Cup is often a good way for Premier League clubs of getting players minutes on the pitch without worrying too much about the end result.

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