Tigana hit by striker crisis

Jean Tigana’s worst-case injury scenario came true today, leaving him without all four recognised Fulham strikers for tomorrow’s Loftus Road showdown with crisis club Leeds.

Facundo Sava sustained a calf problem in Wednesday’s 2-1 Worthington Cup humiliation at Wigan and Tigana today discovered he will be out for up to a fortnight.

Steve Marlet serves the second instalment of his three-match ban for being sent off against Birmingham, while Louis Saha is sidelined until January after hamstring surgery.

And Barry Hayles, already out for three weeks with a neck vertebrae injury, sees a specialist today to find out if he needs an operation.

Tigana is likely to pair left-midfielder Luis Boa Morte, himself just back from a thigh problem, up front alongside Andrejs Stolcers, the Latvian who has made only rare appearances in two years at Fulham.

Centre-back Zat Knight, forced off at half-time at Wigan with a hamstring injury, has aggravated a nerve and is a major doubt.

Alain Goma serves a one-match suspension due to his red card against Liverpool, while Rufus Brevett returns from his single-game ban for being dismissed against Birmingham.

PROVISIONAL SQUAD: van der Sar, Finnan, Ouaddou, Melville, Brevett, Wome, Clark, Davis, Goldbaek, Inamoto, Legwinski, Djetou, Boa Morte, Taylor, Malbranque, Stolcers.