Martin Jol has admitted fears for his fatigue-hit Fulham side, ahead of a New Year trip to West Brom.

Jol takes takes the Cottagers to the club where he once starred as a player in the midst of the worst runs of his managerial career.

But his hopes of turning around a sequence of one win from 12 are being hampered by injuries to key men, with Mark Schwarzer and Damian Duff set to miss out again.

“We have to pick ourselves up and there’s not a situation where we can change the team in five or six positions,” said Jol, whose side have dropped to within four points of the drop zone.

“And that means that a lot of players in my team have to play again and they’ve played a lot of games.

“There’s a little bit of tiredness.”

Jol revealed that Mladen Petric and Mahamadou Diarra are making progress from injuries- but will not be available for the Hawthorns trip.

“If Mladen Petric had been fit then I probably could have played with him,” Jol added.

“I played Diarra when he was 50% because he’s an old war horse. But now he wants to get back to his full fitness and I feel that he’s very close. If Diarra is back in there, it will be a very strong midfield again.

“Up front, we could have done with Petric because he can score out of nothing with his finishing.

“If these players come back, it will be like a fresh team, because we cannot play in our formation the last three months.”