Jeremy Sarmiento’s fitness will require managing says West Brom boss Carlos Corberan

Brighton attacker Sarmiento, 21, is going through rehabilitation on an ankle injury picked up shortly before the international break on the back of his first start for the Baggies.

Frustrating fitness setbacks have limited the Ecuadorian's game time over the last two years since checking into these shores from Benfica in Portugal.

Corberan was wary of building up Sarmiento's sharpness and robustness during the summer after a minimal pre-season with his parent club, on the back of a broken metatarsal bone that ruined his end of last season with the Seagulls.

"It's true every injury has been different," Corberan said of former Charlton youngster Sarmiento. "Two years ago he had a massive hamstring injury that moved him four months out of the team.

"Last year he broke his metatarsal in the foot, he was missing for four or five months. When I bring him to the club I knew he was a player we need to control what we do with him."

Sarmiento had to settle for a substitute role to start the season but was bright from the bench in some cameos and scored his first Albion goal to seal a 4-2 win over Middlesbrough at The Hawthorns.

He was finally handed a start in the home clash against Millwall on September 23 in a clash that ended goalless and felt some discomfort, pain that continued to Preston the following week, where he made another cameo from the bench.

"The positive thing was he was adapting very well to the training demands because if you don't train the player he's not ready to compete and cannot perform," added Albion's boss. "If you are training a lot with the player – then he cannot compete neither.

"So we were managing with a lot of detail every single thing with him. I knew after Millwall the risk to have what's happened right now would be there."