Albion defender Paul Watson has been ruled out until Christmas after major back surgery.

Watson is recovering from an operation on a prolapsed disc, the same injury which sidelined Charlie Oatway from September to December last season.

Manager Mark McGhee revealed today: "Paul has been doing really well in pre-season, but he said to the doctor one day last week he was getting tingling in his fingers and that was the start of it.

"The doctor told us it was only going to get worse, so we took his advice and Paul has had the operation.

"It is similar to Charlie Oatway's and we are talking about ten to 12 weeks rehabilitation.

"The one advantage he had was that he went into the op in great physical condition because of the work he had done in the summer and already in pre-season, so he will certainly be back by Christmas."

The injury has destroyed Watson's hopes of regaining his rightback role after foot and groin problems restricted the Hastings-born player to only 17 appearances last season.

"It's a shame because he was going well," McGhee said. "Maybe this has been at the heart of some of the injuries he has been getting."

Alexis Nicolas, a 21-year-old central midfielder from Chelsea, joins fellow trialists Albert Jarrett and Darren Currie in the squad for tonight's friendly at Stevenage Borough.

Albion (from): Kuipers; Roberts; Piper, El-Abd, Mayo, Rents, Currie, Reid, Nicolas, Hammond, Jarrett, Robinson, Lee, Beck, S. May, Budd, Knight.