Switch article view:Match preview Fulham aim to ease relegation fears with win over Stoke
By Julian Shea.
Kick off Saturday 11 February 2012 at 15:00, Craven Cottage.
Fulham's new signing Pavel Pogrebneyak could be in line for his debut following his move from Stuttgart, but fellow striker Andy Johnson is out with an abductor muscle injury.
A similar problem rules out Philippe Senderos for the next two weeks, Zdenek Grygera (knee) is a long-term absentee and Steve Sidwell misses out with a hernia, so Dickson Etuhu has another chance to impress.
Stoke's Europa League commitments mean they are about to enter a particularly packed part of the season, and Fulham will hope to cash in on this to win and ease their fears of getting sucked into the relegation zone.
Towering defender Robert Huth will miss at least three of those games as he serves a ban for his dismissal against Sunderland, so that is likely to see Jonathan Woodgate return to the starting XI.
Cameron Jerome came off in the first half of that same game with a dead leg, so his place is likely to go to either Ricardo Fuller or Kenwyne Jones, and Matthew Etherington will hope to have shaken off a virus in time to play.
Listen to our football experts Russ Williams, Jim Proudfoot and Ian Wright for a look ahead to the weekend's games in Friday's edition of Ian Wright's podcast.
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