Kazenga LuaLua has pledged to continue playing through pain for injury-hit Albion for the rest of the season.

The explosive winger was named man-of-the-match by the sponsors for the second home game running in Saturday night’s 3-1 defeat by Nottingham Forest at The Amex.

LuaLua also earned the award against Sheffield Wednesday last Tuesday and came through another 90 minutes in spite of a left knee tendon injury which has troubled him since pre-season.

He told The Argus: “I’ve had a knee problem since the first week of pre-season. Sometimes I’ve been training fine, but sometimes I feel pain and I have to stop.

“It’s not something that is going to stop me playing. I can play two games in a week so it’s not a problem. I have pain but I am trying to play and help the team so I have to keep going. If I rested it I would make it worse so I have to keep playing through pain.

“It won’t need surgery but it takes a while to go. It could last even all season. I hope not, I hope it soon gets better.”

LuaLua refused to use Albion’s long injury list as an excuse for a second home defeat of the season in the Championship against fourth-placed Forest which leaves the Seagulls 15th in the table going into the international break.

He said: “We have got lots of injuries, but we cannot really make excuses because of injuries.

“We have people who are fit who are good players as well. We have to stick together. We know we have injuries, but we can’t really blame the result on that.”

Bruno was left out of the squad as a precaution due to a thigh problem but should be available when Albion return to action at Yeovil on October 19.