Tim Ream won’t play against this season after suffering a broken arm against Manchester City, Fulham head coach Marcus Silva confirmed after the Whites’ 2-1 defeat at Craven Cottage.

The 35 year-old American defender’s ever-present league record under Silva will come to an end at Anfield on Wednesday night after he had to leave the field midway through the first half having been kicked by Edson Alvarez in a tussle by the byline.

Silva told his post-match press conference after the final whistle:

“The worst thing that happened to us this afternoon wasn’t the result. It was the two serious injuries in both situations. This is the worst thing that we take from this afternoon. Tim Ream probably won’t play no more this season. He’s broken his arm. Let’s hope Andreas Pereira’s isn’t so serious. With Mitro and the injury to Willian, with a short squad like this, it’s really tough to take.”

The Fulham boss was pleased with the way his side recovered from going behind inside three minutes.

“We started in the worst way possible against a top side. We conceded a penalty straight away. We were losing 1-0 but we showed the personality and the character to come back to balance and equalise the game in that moment. We had a clear plan for the game. We wanted to go through the centre of the pitch, with our wingers a little more inside.

If you try to block certain areas, they will look to expose others. The players, they stuck to their plan and did it well. We obligate them in some moments in the match to come back as we know they are stronger when they build with three. We did it and we created some chances and caused them some problems.

The moment after we equalised the game was probably our best moment in the match. We cannot concede the goal in the way we did it. A great strike from Alvarez, I know, but the way we build in certain areas we cannot lose the ball in that way and we gave them a chance in their counter-attack.

In the second-half, we were really competitive again. We didn’t create many chances, this is true, but we didn’t give many things to them either. Some dangerous chances in both boxes but unfortunately we didn’t equalise.”