You're missing an obvious fourth:
4) Hughton has assessed that Dunk's focus may be compromised by all the rumour and speculation so has taken him out of the firing line for now.
There are three possibilities:
- He starts
- He's a sub
- He's not in the 18
I'm not sure we could read anything definite in any of them.
The second or third could simply mean that Hughton considers his mind not fully focused, for example, which would be quite understandable I think.