Albion boss Chris Hughton has warned that Bobby Zamora is nowhere near as fit yet as his team-mates.

Zamora, without a club since leaving QPR in May, watched training yesterday as the Seagulls prepared for Friday night’s opening Championship fixture at home to Nottingham Forest.

Hughton told The Argus: “As regards a free-from-injury fitness he’s fine. He hasn’t had a pre-season anywhere so he has done it very much on his own.

“Of course, we know the levels of what we’ve had to do in pre-season are completely different, so it will take him a little bit of time to get up to speed.

“How long we don’t know. We’ll use these next couple of days to assess exactly where he is but you have to remember we have done a six-week pre-season which has included seven games.

“He is going to be behind and we’ll determine in the next few days how quickly we can push him.”

Zamora rejoined Albion on Monday evening on a one-year contract.

Hughton, explaining the timing of his return, said: “These are all the decisions you have to take as a manager, look at all the options that are possibly available to us, and we have taken all of that into consideration.

“Bobby was one that we were always aware of. It has happened very quickly I must admit, really from the contact on Friday to getting it done over the weekend and then being finalised.

“It was all very quick but these are the decisions you make as a manager. It was my responsibility right through the summer period to determine what the options are for us and we have come to the conclusion that Bobby is a very good option.”

Zamora’s capture has cast doubt over the chances of much game time for back-up strikers Chris O’Grady and Adrian Colunga, who trained yesterday after missing Sunday’s 1-0 final warm-up win against Sevilla at the Amex due to illness.