Roy Hodgson confirmed that Brede Hangeland was substituted through injury on Sunday against Manchester United and a clearer picture of the nature of the defender’s injury will only be known on Monday.
“It’s not good at the moment and we’ll have to assess the injury,“ said Hodgson after the match at Old Trafford. “He has a spasm caused by a blow to the chest. It was doubtful at half time that he would continue but he gave it a try.
“We hope it’s not a major injury but it’s affected us today of course because we had to reshuffle after going a goal behind.
“He’s in the dressing room having treatment at the moment and we’ll assess the injury tomorrow [Monday] and get a clear picture of what has happened.”
Fulham matched United during the first half at Old Trafford but United took control in the second period and with such an unforgiving fixture list at present, fatigue certainly affected the Whites on Sunday.
“I was hopeful we could reproduce our first half performance in the second half but I can’t say anything other than the best team won,” said Hodgson. “However I thought the scoreline was harsh on us.
“I thought our first half performance was very solid but of course when Rooney got his goal at the start of the second half we were going to be up against it, especially after having played on Thursday night and considering our injury situation.
“Our programme of late has been very, very hard and we looked exceptionally tired in the last twenty minutes of the game. We’ve coped with it better than anyone could have expected, especially when we lost five players in the month of January through injury. I think we’ve done remarkably well to keep playing and it’s important we get through this period before things settle down.”
