A late call will be made on Antonee Robinson’s involvement against Nottingham Forest on Friday night.
The left-back was substituted in the first half against Tottenham Hotspur a fortnight ago, and it’s touch and go whether he’ll make the trip to the City Ground.
“Still in doubt,” was Marco Silva’s reply when asked for an update on Robinson. “It will be difficult, I have to be honest.
“But we have some more hours until the game and we have to check him, like we have been doing every single day, to take the decision.
“It’s not really serious, and because of that we are testing every day how he feels.
“It’s something that could be one or two days, [that’s] the feedback that I received from the medical staff.
“We need to check again because he doesn’t feel really comfortable yet, but I think soon we will have Robinson again.”
A natural replacement would be deadline day signing Layvin Kurzawa, who was left out entirely last time out as he continues to build up his match readiness.
“In that moment he wasn’t fit, [so] he wasn’t on the bench,” Silva explained. “He had just signed two days earlier, but with Kurzawa it’s a different situation than with Vini [Carlos Vinicius], with Daniel James, players that had a pre-season, played friendly matches, played official matches as well.
“Kurzawa didn’t have a pre-season with his teammates, he was apart from the group, so of course it will take more time.
“[But] from the Tottenham match until now the situation is different, and it’s up to me to decide.”
Vinicius, James and Willian all made their Fulham debuts away at Spurs, and will have been pushing hard for first starts since.
Asked if we could see any of them from the off on Friday, Marco replied: “Let’s see. They are competing for a place, like the others, and it’s up to me to decide.
“It’s been 13 days since the last game against Tottenham and they are settling and starting to understand much better the process, the ideas, everything that is important for them to know.
“They are competing with the others, and it’s up to me to decide the best XI.”
Eagle-eyed fans were delighted to see Harry Wilson pop up in training earlier this week, and while he expects to have the winger back before the World Cup, Silva was keen to manage expectations.
“Still far,” he said of Wilson’s recovery time. “We would like to have good news soon, but he’s still far. He’s still doing individual work with [Head of Performance] Bruno Mendes.
“He’s much more involved, it’s good to see him on the pitch already, but just doing individual work, not many things on the ball, and it will take more time.”
