Fulham goalkeeper Antti Niemi will be out of action for up to a month after undergoing surgery on a knee injury.
The 34-year-old Finnish international was replaced by Czech Republic shot-stopper Jan Lastuvka in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat by Blackburn.
Cottagers boss Chris Coleman said: “Antti had a little bit of cartilage floating around and should be back in three weeks to a month.”
Lastuvka, 24, is on loan at Craven Cottage from Shakhtar Donetsk.
He was making his first Premiership appearance at Ewood Park and conceded a goal within six minutes when he was beaten by Shabani Nonda’s speculative strike.
Benni McCarthy also scored before half-time but Lastuvka grew in confidence as the game went on and made two good saves from Brett Emerton and Lucas Neill.
Coleman said: “It was difficult for him to come in today and obviously he was nervous but overall I thought he was okay.”
