Fulham boss Marco Silva will be without five players for his side’s trip to St James’ Park on Wednesday night.
Three of those absentees are due to the African Cup of Nations with Alex Iwobi, Samuel Chukuweze and Calvin Bassey all away representing Nigeria at the tournament. The Super Eagles begin their preparations for AFCON with a friendly against Egypt today before they face Tanzania in their first proper match of the tournament on Tuesday.
All of Iwobi, Bassey and Chukuweze started Fulham’s win over Burnley at the weekend, with the latter two playing 90 minutes at Turf Moor. Speaking ahead of his side’s trip to the north east, Silva also confirmed that he would also be without Ryan Sessegnon or Rodrigo Muniz for Wednesday night’s game.
Neither Sessegnon nor Muniz featured at the weekend and neither will play on Tyneside. Speaking about Sessegnon specifically, Silva called for caution on rushing him back into action too soon: “You have to be careful with him,” Silva said.
“He’s already running on the pitch and doing individual work. He’s not going to be long I don’t think but maybe a couple of weeks. I cannot give you a timescale because we need to see how he reacts again.”
Silva also revealed that there were doubts over the fitness of left-back Antonee Robinson. Robinson returned from injury to feature at the weekend, but with just a few days to prepare for this fixture, Silva admitted that won’t be rushed back into the first-team too quickly.
“When I decided to start with him – physically I didn’t have any doubts because we know the work we’ve been doing with him. Against Burnley he showed that and the stats showed that.
“Of course the other things have to come with the games – our defensive principles that you have to do every single day and will take time, even if you know them. We need Robinson to get up and down every game so it’s very important to have him back.”
On his knee injury, Silva added: “He had a good reaction after the game. Yesterday nothing really special.
“Until now the fitness is very good. We will see tomorrow.”
Marco Silva on facing Newcastle United
Just 90 minutes separate one of Fulham or Newcastle United from a Carabao Cup semi-final spot. The Magpies are, of course, reigning holders of the trophy and will be desperate to avoid a premature exit in front of their own fans on Wednesday night.
For Fulham, there is a chance of not just a major trophy on the line, but also revenge over the side that defeated them in stoppage time of their Premier League meeting back in October.
“If you want to play semi-finals these are the types of places you have to go to and show your quality,” Silva added. “It is no coincidence they are playing Champions League. We know how tough of an atmosphere St James’ Park is.
“We had ambition to go as far as we can in this competition. Now to play semi-finals we have to go to Newcastle, respect them, and play with ambition.”
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