Fulham will be without Bobby Zamora for a minimum of four months after the England striker suffered a broken leg in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Wolves.
Zamora was stretchered off after 28 minutes following a Karl Henry tackle.
On Friday the 29-year-old forward, who made his England debut against Hungary in August, signed a new four-year deal that keeps him at Fulham until 2014.
“He’s broken his leg just above the ankle and is out for a minimum of four months,” said Fulham boss Mark Hughes.
Zamora signed for Fulham from West Ham in July 2008 and, after a difficult first season, came to the fore during the 2009-10 campaign with his 19 goals helping the London side reach the Europa League final and finish 12th in the Premier League.
“We hopeful he hasn’t suffered any ligament damage, but if he has he could be out for longer,” added Hughes.
“It’s a big loss. We won the game for him really.”
Fulham came from 1-0 down to win at Craven Cottage after two goals from Moussa Dembele.
Neither Hughes nor Wolves boss Mick McCarthy made any criticism of Henry’s tackle in their post-match interviews.
“It’s a shame but I don’t really lay the blame on the player [Henry]. It’s one of those,” said Hughes.
“There’s always a danger if you get tackled from the side or from behind that players’ legs can get trapped.
“I don’t think there was any intent to hurt Bobby. You don’t expect the circumstances of the injury to be the result of a challenge like that, but it can happen.
“At the time I was a little bit disappointed that the referee didn’t view it as a foul, but there you go.”
The Wolves captain was not booked for the challenge.
Zamora started the current campaign in fine form, scoring in the 2-2 Premier League draw at Blackpool before suffering to a thigh injury.
That injury robbed him of a place in the England squad for Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Switzerland and he had been a doubt for the game with Wolves.
Wolves manager Mick McCarthy insisted his team are not a “dirty side”.
In addition to Christophe Berra’s red card they also had five players booked, but McCarthy said it was “a competitive game”.
“We’ll keep competing the way we do, we’ll try and go to Spurs and play wonderful silky football and try and beat them and get shot of this label,” he said.
