After deciding against resting fiery Watford defender Jose Holebas in last night's defeat to Bristol City, it was sod's law the club's only senior left-back would find himself ruled out of their next game somehow.

A deserved second-half red card for the 33-year-old, for two lunging challenges, has left head coach Marco Silva scratching his head as to how to replace him against Brighton on Saturday.

It has been an open secret this summer that the Hornets have been on the look-out for competition for Holebas over the summer, and were in discussions with Arsenal's Kieran Gibbs before the England defender's wage demands ruled out a transfer.

And Silva, who normally shies away from discussing specific positions, was uncharacteristically frustrated about the issue after last night's defeat - and, without being prompted, the use of Kiko Femenia as a replcaement for regular right-back Daryl Janmaat.

He said: "I think it's clear for everybody. I've said since the first match: it's impossible to prepare for a season with only one left-back. It's the same as preparing with four centre-backs or six midfielders – it's normal.

"The situation with Jose is the same thing. Now we need to find one solution. We have the problem with [Daryl] Janmaat too, so we don't have a lot of solutions at the moment. We'll see what I find."

Brandon Mason could be Silva's only option to take the left-back berth on Saturday, but the head coach dropped a big hint over his faith in the youngster by not including him in the squad altogether last night.

He added: "We need to wait for my decision, and after we'll see what that is."