Fulham Football Club

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

• Ground:Craven Cottage
• Capacity:26,600

Dempsey set to be sidelined

18 Jan 2010 - 09:27:26

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Fulham's USA international forward Clint Dempsey looks set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering suspected knee ligament damage during the 2-0 defeat at Blackburn Rovers.

The 26-year-old is awaiting the results of scans on the problem, but Cottagers boss Roy Hodgson is bracing himself for bad news.

He 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."