Antonee Robinson will be available for Fulham’s London derby at Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon after recovering from the muscle injury he sustained during international duty.
The American left back was replaced by Timothy Castagne for last weekend’s narrow win over Luton but head coach Marco Silva confirmed that Robinson has resumed training this week and is in contention to make his return to the starting line-up at Selhurst Park.
“We have another training session tomorrow but he has been training with the team since the beginning of the week and will probably be ready.”
The news is less good regarding some of Fulham’s other injury concerns. Serbian central midfielder Sasa Lukic will miss out again as a result of the groin problem that forced him off at Arsenal in August, whilst new signing Adama Traore has picked up a muscle injury.
“Lukic has a groin issue that he felt during the match against Arsenal. Adama is a muscle injury. These type of things can happen. Almost all of his pre-season was playing alone. He was training with a personal physio but it is completely different if you are in a team doing a proper pre-season. He started to be involved in games, and we had a behind-closed-doors game during the international break here (Motspur Park) and he felt his hamstring.”
Central defender Tosin Adarabioyo – likely to be missing for most of the two months – has had surgery on a groin problem that troubled him last season.
Silva also has a selection dilemma over who to start up front. He continues to praise Raul Jimenez and believes the Mexican will break his duck for Fulham short, but the predatory instincts of Carlos Vinicius – who scored within three minutes of replacing the former Wolves forward against Luton – make for a tricky decision against the Eagles.
“We have to wait until the game. We have three players that can play there – Carlos, Raúl and Rodrigo – and it’s up to me to decide regarding what we want for the match, depending on the strategy and the opponent. It’s always important for a striker to score goals and be decisive. They can have this impact from the beginning or the bench. They have to help the team. That is what Vinicius did last game, after three minutes. But without scoring, that is what Raúl did as well when he played, working for the team.”
