Fulham head coach Marco Silva says it is ‘difficult to know’ when Antonee Robinson will be able to return to first-team football.
The Fulham full back has only made two appearances for the Whites this season having undergone surgery to solve a knee problem this summer. Robinson came off the bench in the second half of Fulham’s first home game of the campaign as Silva’s side fought back to draw with Manchester United and completed ninety minutes in a League Cup win over Cambridge United, but was unable to train when he joined up with the United States on international duty earlier this month.
Speaking to Jack Kelly ahead of tomorrow’s League Cup trip to Wycombe Wanderers, Silva said:
“I would really like to give you a timescale but at this moment, it’s not possible … because it’s a risk. The feedback that I got from the medical staff from Bruno [Mendes, Fulham’s head of performance] .. from my staff that is always in contact with us, that is very difficult to have a timescale [or] to have a time or date that I can give you. We have to see how he’s going to feel every single day. Probably when he’s going to be ready to come back I can probably give the feedback
I can tell you [Robinson’s out] tomorrow for sure, for the next game [against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Saturday he’s out] for sure. I don’t know for sure if he’s going to be ready before the international break, but right now it is very difficult. It’s the same knee. It was not like he got another injury during the international break with the USA. The reality is that with us he played one Cup game – ninety minutes [against Cambridge United]. The feedback that I got from Robinson was okay. It was not perfect, but it was okay.
He was on the bench against [AFC] Bournemouth. He trained all week before Bournemouth. That’s why he was called up for the USA. After [the] two to three sessions he trained, he was not able to train more. For the USA, he was able to play one game, then on the bench for the other.”
That’s very reassuring, his market value has just plummeted. Waiting for the summer break to do the corrective operation completely backfired.
Should have signed Toffolo on a free from Forest, he would have been a very situable backup and as it’s turned out a long term replacement.
So now we know that no one knows.
More wonderful stuff.
Not signing cover for the left back position this past summer was another amazing decision when our left back was recovering from major surgery.
I’m sure Marco had mentioned it to the acquisition team, probably even jotted down Toffolo as a neat back up.
But of course, Wrestlemania dictated inaction.
Even more extraordinary was the decision to play Robinson for the whole 90 against Cambridge though…he could have been subbed off after 45 without issue.
Then, he couldn’t play again for us…but he could turn out for the US team in a meaningless game for another 90 minutes after which he couldn’t play again.
and here we are, with no time line for his return.
One can’t make this crap up.
As an addendum to the above I should point out that the owners are based in the US so probably encouraged him to participate and that to them Toffolo is a sweet chewy confection that sticks to one’s teeth.