Alfie Mawson could miss Fulham's first four league games as knee injury delays new signing's inclusion

Injury woes | Mawson will miss Fulham's early games
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James Benge5 August 2018

Fulham centre-back Alfie Mawson is set to miss at least the first three games of his new club’s season as he continues to recover from a knee injury.

Mawson, who left Swansea for Fulham in a £20million deal last week, saw his hopes of making Gareth Southgate’s World Cup squad dashed before the tournament when he was forced to undergo knee surgery.

The 24-year-old is continuing his recovery from that operation and Slavisa Jokanovic confirmed that the start of the Premier League season would come too soon for Mawson.

“He won't be ready,” the Fulham boss told Standard Sport. “We will be waiting between two and three weeks for him to start working with us.

“In this moment I don't expect he can help us before September.”

That timescale would rule Mawson out of Fulham’s Premier League opener against Crystal Palace at Craven Cottage and subsequent matches at Tottenham and at home to Burnley. The defender would also need to make a speedy recovery to travel to Brighton on September 1, with the trip to champions Manchester City a more likely date for his comeback.

In Mawson’s absence and with no replacements at either full-back position for Matt Targett and Ryan Fredericks Jokanovic was forced to deploy what he claimed was a makeshift defence, notably pushing Ryan Sessegnon back to left-back after he spent much of last season on the wing.

“I don't believe it is good to play Ryan Sessegnon left full back but if I don't have another choice I will play with him,” Jokanovic said.

“This is how I try and analyse team. I expect, I hope I will have a stronger team in my hand, I must make some kind of improvisation. This can be so dangerous for us.”

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