There was good news for Fulham last week when Philippe Christanval returned to full training after a long term absence due to injury.
Christanval, who has played for Monaco, Barcelona and Marseille, last played first team soccer for The Cottagers at the end of last season.
“I’ve been back in training for one week now,” he said. “So after four months out I can finally say that I’m ok. After a long injury you need to work a lot on the pitch but it’s good to be back.“
Even though he will not be match fit for the next Fulham game against Arsenal his return will please Roy Hodgson who needs all the help he can get.
“I think it (the Arsenal game) might be too early because I need to play with the Reserves first,” he said. “I would love to play because it’s a great game to come back for. Arsenal have been playing very well this season, nice football, nice passing. They’re a very good team with plenty of good players but in football one game is one game. If we want to win we need to have confidence and enjoy the game.”
Christanval is also impressed with the appointment of Roy Hodgson.
“He talks with everybody and tries to give everybody confidence so they [the players] all think he’s good,” Christanval said. “He has a lot of experience and he knows what he says. He worked in Italy and many different countries so he knows football.
“His tactics make sense and he asks players to try and play and be confident. If you try to do that every day in training it will make things better in the game – I’m sure of that.”
