Nightmare Matt O'Riley development as ex-Celtic star sidelined for months as surgery call impacts Billy Gilmour Napoli move

O'Riley signed for the Seagulls from Celtic on Monday in a £25 million-plus transfer and was selected to play from the start for Brighton in their Carabao Cup second-round clash against Crawley Town. However, just eight minutes into his first appearance for the English Premier League side, O'Riley was injured after a poor tackle from Jay Williams. He was carried off by the Brighton medical team and it has been confirmed that he will need an operation on an ankle injury.

Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler spoke to the media on Thursday ahead of his team's match against Arsenal at the weekend and when asked about O'Riley, the German said: “It's a bad injury. He needs surgery on his ankle. I can't say how long we expect him to be out. It's a tough one for us.”

Hurzeler had hit out at the challenge on Tuesday, saying at the time: “Ridiculous foul. It has nothing to do with football, we have to be honest.  This situation changed a little bit the game because afterwards it's getting very emotional during this game but I hope it's not so bad.

Crawley boss Crawley Scott Lindsey has since apologised for the tackle, saying: “Maybe we were a bit aggressive, maybe the referee missed it (the challenge) and I would like to apologise. I wouldn’t want anyone to be hurt. We are both passionate about the game and we wish Brighton all the best in the next round.”

The injury is set to have a knock-on effect for the transfer of Brighton's Scotland midfielder Billy Gilmour to Napoli. The Serie A side - who are close to signing Scott McTominay from Man Utd - had hoped to land Gilmour as well, but now that O'Riley is set to face months on the sidelines, Brighton are set to pull the plug on the move.