Fulham Football Club

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

• Ground:Craven Cottage
• Capacity:26,600

Hodgson laments Zamora injury

06 Jan 2010 - 08:29:09

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Fulham striker Bobby Zamora faces several weeks out of action after dislocating his right shoulder during Tuesday's 3-2 defeat at Stoke City.

It is a major blow for the Cottagers and the player himself, who had been on top form in the last few weeks.

To add to manager Roy Hodgson's woes, Brede Hangeland also suffered an injury during the Britannia Stadium clash.

Hodgson said of Zamora's injury: "It is bad. It is a dislocation - I don't know whether it is a collarbone or a shoulder but either way it is a bad injury.

"It is a very expensive day for us. We were forced to replace Hangeland at half-time with a recurrence of his knee injury and we lost Zamora early in the second half and we have also lost the game."

On his side's second-half display after the Potters had raced into a 3-0 interval lead, the veteran manager added: "I thought we did well to come out in the second half after conceding those disastrous goals in the first half.

"You know when you come to Stoke set-plays are going to be their major goalscoring weapon. The players have shown a lot of character to make a game of it in the second half.

"I didn't think we were particularly outplayed in the first half but 3-0 in any league is a very difficult deficit to come back from.

"I thought we gave it our best shot and I just wish the game had gone on for another ten minutes - who knows we might have sneaked one in."