Albion boss Chris Hughton expects Lewis Dunk to shrug off speculation over his future.

The centre-half returned to action in yesterday’s 1-0 friendly defeat at Aberdeen after attracting a rejected £4 million bid from Fulham and missing the midweek win at Crawley due to a knock.

Hughton told The Argus: “Any type of speculation is very much part of the game. If it’s him this time it will be somebody else next time and they get used to it.

“Players always have to train well, produce what they are good at, otherwise people will think differently of them.

“He’s not been a problem, same as everybody else.”

Summer signing Liam Rosenior suffered a knee injury scare in the first half at Pittodrie.

Rosenior was able to continue after treatment but was replaced for the second half by Inigo Calderon.

Hughton said: “When he went down we thought he had twisted it or something but he got one of those painful studs on his knee which is a fairly boney area.”

Dale Stephens and Sam Baldock were precautionary absentees, joining Solly March (ankle), Gordon Greer (adductor) and Jake Forster-Caskey (knee) on the sidelines.

Goalkeeper signing Niki Maenpaa did not travel either. Hughton said: “Our thinking was to give David Stockdale a full 90 minutes so he’ll (Maenpaa) be involved, as will Casper (Ankergren), midweek.”

Albion visit Gillingham in their penultimate first team friendly on Wednesday (7.45pm) and the under-21s entertain the Nike Academy at the training complex in Lancing on Thursday (1pm).

The latter run-out could signal the return to action of two-time serious knee injury victim Andrew Crofts, while Hughton expects the ankle injury sustained by March at Crawley to keep him out only in the short-term.