Fulham’s record-signing Kostas Mitroglou is seeing a specialist in Italy over his knee injury amid fears his season could be over.
There are concerns in Greece about whether the £12million striker, who has cost Fulham more than £100,000 for every minute he has played, will be fit enough to play at this summer’s World Cup.
But Fulham’s priority is to get him back for the relegation run-in. They are bottom of the Premier League, five points from safety with just six games remaining.
Mitroglou has made just two appearances since moving to Fulham in January and it is hoped a course of treatment in Bologna will help cure a problem that has sidelined him for a month.
Fulham boss Felix Magath said last week he hoped Mitroglou would be fit to face Aston Villa on Saturday but the player faces at least two more weeks on the sidelines.
Fulham could be relegated by the time Mitroglou is fit and the gamble of spending so much on the former Olympiakos striker appears to have backfired spectacularly.
Taking into account the transfer fee and his £40,000-a-week wages, Mitroglou has cost Fulham £103,529 for every minute he has played. Mitroglou joined Fulham with a minor knee injury but Magath claims the current problem is a separate issue. He made his debut as a 61st-minute substitute in a 1-1 draw at West Brom on February 22 but Magath then raised concerns over the player’s fitness and left him out of the squad to face Chelsea the following week.
Mitroglou returned to play 90 minutes of the 3-1 defeat against Cardiff but looked some way short of full fitness and then sustained a knee problem in training.
Magath has grown concerned at his slow recovery and Fulham’s medical staff have decided he should see a specialist.
