Fulham were dealt another serious injury worry at the Britannia Stadium on Tuesday night when Mousa Dembele was stretchered from the field of play following a reckless late challenge on the striker by Stoke defender Andy Wilkinson.
Manager Mark Hughes delivered his verdict on the tackle after the game and Fulham must now hope scans on the striker’s injury do not reveal any significant damage.
“We’ll know in the next 24 hours the full extent of Mousa’s injury but if he’s avoided serious injury then he’s a very lucky boy,” Hughes told fulhamfc.com. “We’ll have to wait for it to settle before we can have it scanned.
“When you’re at that stage of the game and your team is leading two-nil there is a certain code that suggests you look after your fellow professionals. Frankly I don’t know what the hell he [Wilkinson] was thinking.
“I was disappointed in terms of the game itself and the manner in which we conceded the goals. Our general play was okay without forcing the issue. We opened them up at times but we didn’t take our opportunities.
“Mark Schwarzer put his hands up for the second goal as he misjudged the flight of the ball which was unfortunate. It was a missed opportunity because we wanted to do well in this competition. We won’t dwell on it but we need to keep our influential players on the field of play and we can’t afford to lose Mousa for any considerable length of time.”