Fulham will once again wait until late on a matchday to see whether Brede Hangeland is fit enough to take on Stoke tomorrow night.
The Norwegian defender, who has missed Fulham’s last two games with a knee problem he picked up in the warm-up against Tottenham on Boxing Day, is Roy Hodgson’s only major injury concern for the trip to the Britannia Stadium. Chris Smalling could continue in his Hangeland’s place if the Norway skipper is ruled out.
Stephen Kelly will remain at right back after John Pantsil, who should have been Angola-bound, twisted his knee at Chelsea. The news on the Ghanaian full back is a lot better than previosuly thought as he’s only expected to be out of action for six weeks.
Andy Johnson is in contention to make his first league start since August after completing 83 minutes on his comeback against Swindon in the FA Cup. Damien Duff, Chris Baird and Danny Murphy are expected to return having been rested for the third round tie at the weekend.
As good as Smalling has been recently, I am still very keen that Hangeland replaces him for tomorrow’s game. Why? Rory Delap’s throw in is starting to get dangerous again, and we are going to need to big Norwegian to repel this away.
You’d love to have Hangeland in the line-up, of course, but Smalling’s not a bad replacement. Delap’s throws worked against York but they seemed staggeringly disorganised from the highlights I saw. Plus, Smalling has proved he’s better in the air than you would think.