Aleksandar Mitrovic admitted he was exhausted by the end of Fulham’s enthralling draw with Bournemouth on Saturday – but not from running around, rather the wrestling he had to do with the Cherries’ centre halves.

The Serbian striker, who returned from a foot injury to score the Whites’ second equaliser from the penalty spot, told the club’s official website that the grappling – more akin to AEW than the Premier League – took a heavy toll, especially as he remains short of match sharpness.

“To be honest with you, sometimes I’m not even tired from running, I’m tired from wrestling with defenders all game. There were two or three big guys around me, always holding, so it takes a lot of energy. I was really exhausted, not from running, from wrestling!

Mitrovic gave short shrift to Gary O’Neill’s complaints about the award of the penalty when he was hauled to the floor by Jefferson Lerma.

If you’re a big strong guy, like I am, they try to stop you. I think the penalty was a soft one, but it was a penalty. I’m not going to talk about referees, but there’s been a lot of soft penalties this season. If it was a penalty against us in the last game, then I think this one was 100 per cent a penalty as well. I was happy to get one for us, and I managed to put it on target. To be honest I had one or two more chances where I could have reacted better.”

Fulham’s number nine reiterated his disappointment at only picking up a point, but believes the Whites can return to winning ways on Thursday night against Aston Villa.

“The target was three points. No matter who’s the opponent, when we’re playing at home the target is three points. We conceded sloppy goals and I think that cost us the game. We managed to get the draw, one point is better than zero, and we move on. Am I happy? No, but we take it and move on. We’ve got another big, big game in a few days, and we have to recover and prepare for that.”