Fulham could be light in central midfield for our season opener at Goodison Park on Saturday.
In his pre-match press conference, Marco Silva revealed that João Palhinha is yet to fully recover from the shoulder injury he suffered in the early stages of the Summer Series.
“João is out,” our Head Coach confirmed. “He's been doing individual work but not full work with the team yet.
“We have to assess him day by day. To be honest, now we are much more positive about the return date, but we have to see.
“We expected him to be probably ready for the first matchday but it's not going to be possible.
“And after, we have to see day by day, to analyse him, how he's going to react, and to see if he's going to be ready for the next one or not.”
Palhinha is not the only injury concern, though there is hope the other doubts could be fit to take on Everton.
“We have to assess some of the others, some knocks the last few games, last few days as well,” Silva said. “There are some doubts, like Andreas Pereira and some of the other players.
“There's nothing really serious but we have another session tomorrow and we have to assess them and, after, to take decisions for the game.”
Silva also named Tom Cairney as one of the players who requires further assessment ahead of the weekend’s trip to Merseyside.
