Roy Hodgson delivered some encouraging news from the Training Ground on Thursday afternoon regarding the fitness of several key players, including a return to First Team training for Brian McBride.
"The injury situation is improving," revealed Hodgson. "We’re still being very careful with Brian McBride but he has trained once with the First Team this week.
"Philippe Christanval has trained every day this week and Jimmy Bullard has played in a Reserve match and trained in sessions. Aaron Hughes also trained today (Thursday) but Ian Pearce and Elliot Omozusi still have problems, but certainly the situation is brighter today than it was a while ago.
"We also have the problem with Hameur Bouazza who dislocated his shoulder in our last game so we have to be careful with him although it’s not as serious this time round."
Jimmy Bullard played 90 minutes in Fulham's Reserve team victory over Arsenal on Monday night and Hodgson revealed the midfielder is ahead of schedule and desperate to return to First Team action.
"Jimmy’s desperate to get back into First Team action. We have to be careful because the competitive side of the game is something you don’t get such a good feeling for in training sessions. We have to be sure his knee is going to stand up to the pressure of tough tackling and being tackled when you are off balance.
"According to our Medical Department and Sports Science Department he is running ahead of schedule rather than behind and they will advise us to be cautious. Jimmy is not a cautious guy and I’m certain that if I said to him ‘I need you to play on Saturday,’ he’d be the first one changed and out. He’s moving on very well."
