Fulham Football Club

• Nickname:Cottagers
• Founded:1879
• Manager:Martin Jol

• Ground:Craven Cottage
• Capacity:26,600

Dempsey boosts Cottagers

20 Jan 2010 - 07:49:59

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Fulham striker Clint Dempsey has escaped serious injury after a scan confirmed he only sustained moderate damage to a ligament in his right knee during Sunday's defeat at Blackburn Rovers.

It is believed that the USA international will not need an operation and should be able to return to action before the end of the season.

It is much better news than Cottagers boss Roy Hodgson was expecting, as he had said after the Ewood Park setback: "The initial prognosis for Clint is not good.

"It looks like he has suffered cruciate knee ligament damage which, if he has, keeps him out of action for a while.

"We won't know for certain until the scan is completed on Monday, but the doctors are pretty good these days and often their initial prognosis proves to be the correct one.

"It's a concern, especially up front. We think that Clint Dempsey as an all-round player is very useful for us. Now, with him and Bobby Zamora out, it makes us a bit weaker in that area than we'd like to be.

"We'll get Zamora, Dempsey and John Paintsil back and maybe we'll have to accept that we'll have to do our best in the meantime with what we've got.

"I'm still fairly confident that the team, even with the injury situation, are capable of holding their own in this division and we must continue building on the good things we do."