Brighton boss Roberto de Zerbi won't pressure Alexis Mac Allister to return from Argentina and his World Cup celebrations.

De Zerbi on Tuesday said the 23-year-old was having "two weeks of holiday", and on Friday the manager was asked if that meant Mac Allister would be back for the Premier League trip to Everton on January 3.

The Italian said: "I have to speak with him, but it's not a problem when he will come back.

"The problem is our players, they are not used to playing this competition. This competition is very important and very pressured for them, and I want Alexis to come back when he's ready to play.

"The players who stayed in World Cup competition, for them it's not easy to restart with a 100 per cent focus in the Premier League, in our team. But it's natural, it's something different.

"Players of Manchester City, of Liverpool - yesterday, I watched the game (between those teams in the Carabao Cup), and it seems to be that they never played at the World Cup. For us, it's completely different."