Fulham braced for Johnson blow

03 February 2010 09:13
Fulham forward Andrew Johnson will undergo an exploratory knee operation to discover whether he requires further surgery which could rule him out for the rest of the season. Johnson, 28, has seen his season blighted by injury. A dislocated collarbone and a groin strain have limited him to just 13 appearances for the club this term. The news is a further blow for Fulham manager Roy Hodgson who already has forwards Clint Dempsey and Zoltan Gera suffering with knee complaints. USA international Dempsey has knee ligament damage while Hungarian Gera took a blow to his knee in training on Tuesday. Johnson's injury comes at a bad time for Fulham, as Hodgson allowed Diomansy Kamara to join Celtic on loan believing Johnson was progressing well from his injury. At the club's press conference at Motspur Park, Hodgson said: "AJ's going to have an exploratory operation on his knee. "If they find that the problem is as major as it could possibly be, then he would need an operation that would keep him out for the rest of the season. "If we're lucky and the major operation is not needed, and it's something wrong with the cartilage, then he might be back earlier. At the moment we're talking three to four weeks, and the worst-case scenario is the rest of the season and him being fit to join us in pre-season."

Source: PA