Marco Silva hopes Fulham can reignite their stuttering Premier League campaign at Craven Cottage against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday night.

The Whites went into the international break having been well beaten at in-form Aston Villa a week after a shattering late defeat at the hands of Manchester United. The Fulham boss believes that the gap in club football may have come at a good time for his side and feels that the number of first-team players in action for their countries shows the progress that the club are making.

He told his pre-match press conference this afternoon:

“It’s a good sign that we have 13, 14 players away over the last two international weeks. On the other side of the coin, of course not the best time for us to work when you have two or three injured players. We had the normal seven, eight players to work with but it’s part of the plan. It’s good for us that the game is going to be on Monday, to give us enough time to prepare.”

Silva confirmed that Fulham will remain without a number of injured players and that Adama Traore, who returned from a long injury lay-off at Villa Park, has suffered another setback and will not be available to feature against his old club.

“Issa Diop, Adama Traoré is going to be out too, plus Rodrigo Muniz and Tyrese Francois. It’s difficult to find reasons. It’s been a tough situation with some key players, important players for us, sometimes in the same position. It’s difficult to say that the reason is A, B, C or D, of course we try to understand why things happen.”