Danny Murphy will have a fitness test tomorrow in a bid to beat his ankle injury and captain Fulham at Swansea on Saturday.
The veteran midfielder is determined not to miss Fulham’s next fixture despite limping out of Monday’s win over Liverpool during injury-time. The 34 year-old was forced off after injuring his ankle in a late challenge and manager Martin Jol was downbeat in the post-match press conference, expecting his influential midfielder to miss at least the trip to Wales. But Murphy remains keen to keep his place in the Fulham midfield and will undergo a strenuous fitness test tomorrow afternoon.
Steve Sidwell faces another fitness test on his hernia problem, having returned from a quick visit to a specialist in Munich this week in search of a second opinion. Young Czech midfielder Marcel Gecov, who replaced Murphy against Liverpool on Monday, would be in line for a first league start alongside Dickson Etuhu, who Jol praised as one of his most consistent performers of late, if both Murphy and Sidwell were unavailable.
Jol revealed that he could include Simon Davies, who played 70 minutes for the reserves against West Brom on Tuesday, in the squad for the trip to the Liberty Stadium if the Welsh midfielder comes through tomorrow’s training session unscathed. It would an earlier than expected return to the first team for Davies, who has been out of action for four months since injuring his knee in Jol’s first game against NSI Runavik.
Fulham are likely to be without both Chris Baird and Damien Duff on Saturday, however. Baird is still set to be unavailable for personal reasons, while Duff is sidelined by the calf injury he aggravated against FC Twente last week. The Republic of Ireland international is expected to return to training next week and Swiss teenager Kerim Frei, who was on the bench against Liverpool, should feature again in the matchday 18.
