Fulham’s Andreas Pereira joins Tim Ream in being ruled out for rest of season

By PA Sport Staff

Fulham midfielder Andreas Pereira has joined skipper Tim Ream in being ruled out for the rest of the season.

Sunday’s 2-1 home loss to Manchester City saw Ream forced off in the first half, with the defender having broken his arm, and Pereira then departed the field on a stretcher after the interval following a coming-together with Manuel Akanji.

Cottagers boss Marco Silva said post-match that Ream “is probably not playing any more” for the remainder of the campaign – something he confirmed at a press conference on Monday ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Liverpool, while also revealing the same applied to Pereira.

Silva said: “Tim Ream has broken his arm and will be out until the end of the season, and the situation of Andreas Pereira in terms of this season will be the same, he will play no more.

“We are waiting for more updates from the examinations, an MRI as well, and when we are going to be more sure about everything we are going to give more feedback, but both are not going to play more this season.”

Silva, who described the pair as “two big misses for us”, added: “When one player has broken his arm and one has a serious injury in his ankle, it’s not really a normal scenario, a normal thing. It was really an unlucky afternoon for us when these type of things happen.

“But we have to be ready, now is the moment for us to recover them really well, as fast as we can, and support them in everything we can, because they have been so, so important players for us this season.”

Fulham, whose top-scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic’s eight-match suspension still has two more games to go, have also had Willian absent for their last two outings.

The winger was a late withdrawal from the starting line-up ahead of the 1-0 loss at Aston Villa last Tuesday due to a hamstring issue.

Regarding that injury, Silva said: “Not really serious. We took a decision more as a precaution, to be honest. It was something that came from the last minutes of the Leeds match (the 2-1 win three days earlier). He felt it again during the warm-up and we decided not to take the risk.

“Of course there was a short time between the games, Villa and City. We took care of him, and we made some individual work to see if he would be ready or not.

“The day before the match we tried, he wasn’t feeling at the best level, not really confident, and we decided we wouldn’t start with him.

“Let’s see – we have another session tomorrow and we are going to assess him and after will decide. Probably I believe if not for tomorrow then he will be ready for the next match, against Leicester (at home next Monday).”

Fulham are currently 10th in the Premier League with five more games remaining, while Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, who extended their winning run to four matches with Sunday’s 4-3 victory over Tottenham, are fifth.