Fulham manager Marco Silva returned to his press conference duties following the latest international break as he prepares his side to face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday night.
A number of his squad were called up for international duty, something that offers problems as well as being a good sign of the work being done on the pitch at club level.
“It’s a good sign that we have 13, 14 players away over the last two international weeks,” he started.
“On the other side of the coin, of course not the best time for us to work when you have two or three injured players.
“We had the normal seven, eight players to work with but it's part of the plan.
“It’s good for us that the game is going to be on Monday, to give us enough time to prepare.”
On team news, Marco revealed the four players that won’t be available for selection: “Issa Diop, Adama Traoré is going to be out too, plus Rodrigo Muniz and Ty Francois.”
Marco was asked about the recent revelation that there have been 15 per cent more injuries than in the previous four seasons at this stage of the season.
“It’s difficult to find reasons,” Marco said. “It’s been a tough situation with some key players, important players for us, sometimes in the same position.
“It’s difficult to say that the reason is A, B, C or D, of course we try to understand why things happen.”
In our last game before the international break, Raul Jimenez scored what was his first goal for Fulham, something that Marco hopes gives him more confidence moving forward.
“It was really important for him first of all,” he said. “We lost the game so it’s not the same feeling when a player has scored a goal and you lost the game.
“He is always trying to help the team. Definitely, we are going to see more confidence for sure.
“But now it's up to him to keep working hard and to be more confident in certain moments around the box because he has the capacity to do it. He has the quality to do it as well.”
We face Monday’s opponents off the back of an impressive home win over high-flying Tottenham Hotspur but Marco expects a reaction from his side.
“Of course, they are confident right now and we respect that,” Marco confirmed when asked.
“We know that Gary's doing a good job, last season as well at Bournemouth too and of course we know what they are capable to do. It is up to us to do to try to do better.”