Charalampos Kostoulas: Injury Update and Praise for Brighton Forward

• Charalampos Kostoulas needed stitches for a leg injury during Greece’s 2-1 win over Serbia.
• He is a doubt for Greece’s Nations League match against Germany in Augsburg.
• The Brighton forward is nominated for the Premier League Player of the Month award for September.

The Charalampos Kostoulas injury has left Greece’s coaching staff weighing up his fitness just days before a Nations League trip to Germany.

Kostoulas needed stitches for a leg wound picked up in Greece’s 2-1 win over Serbia, and his availability for Augsburg now hinges on how he responds in training.

Kostoulas fitness update and form

Greece head coach Ivan Jovanovic confirmed the Charalampos Kostoulas injury after the win in Belgrade.

The forward took a knock that required stitches, and the plan is to monitor him closely before naming a starting line-up for Sunday’s match against Germany.

The timing is awkward. Kostoulas has just been nominated for the Premier League Player of the Month award for September, recognition of the form that has made him a regular under Fabian Hurzeler at Brighton this season.

Charalampos Kostoulas: how it happened

Kostoulas was one of several Greece players to feel the physical toll of a hard-fought away win.

Serbia pushed hard for an equaliser, and it was in that spell of the game that he suffered the leg wound serious enough to need stitching. Our full report on Kostoulas’s injury update carried the first confirmation from the Greece camp.

“Babis had a knock, he had to have stitches,” Jovanovic said.

He added that his condition would only become clear once he had trained with the squad. “He’s a strong lad.

Today we will practise and we will have more conclusions after practice depending on how he feels,” Jovanovic said.

The win itself mattered too. Greece came from behind to beat Serbia 2-1 away from home, and Jovanovic pointed to the mood inside the camp afterwards.

“When you win away from home there is a good mood and I expect it to remain after today’s practice,” he said.

The expert angle: Hurzeler highlights intrinsic motivation

Back at Brighton, Hurzeler has been just as keen to talk about Kostoulas, though for very different reasons.

Asked about his rapid rise, the Brighton manager pointed to attitude rather than raw talent. “Definitely, I see improvement, and that comes back a lot to himself, because he has just this intrinsic motivation of really improving,” Hurzeler said, in coaching assessments reported by The Argus.

Hurzeler went further on the daily habits behind that progress. “Every day, he gets more and more professional, understands what he needs to do to be a professional player,” he said.

It is a theme Hurzeler returns to often when discussing players who adapt quickly to English football.

He was equally direct on the specific demands of the Premier League.

“He understands the demands from the Premier League more,” Hurzeler said, before adding: “He understands our demands, what we need to see from him on a daily basis and therefore he just has a great development.”

What happens next

Greece’s medical staff will make the final call on Kostoulas once the squad completes training ahead of the Germany fixture in Augsburg. Jovanovic has given no firm timeline beyond that assessment, so his involvement is likely to stay uncertain until close to kick-off.

Brighton will be watching closely.

Kostoulas’s rise also fits a broader pattern at Brighton. The club has built its recent progress on developing young talent that becomes part of the club’s modern European rise, and Hurzeler’s comments suggest he views Kostoulas as central to that project.

Follow all the latest: Football live: Premier League 2026/27 news, transfers and updates.