Tete still out and Fulham ‘managing’ Mitrovic’s fitness

Fulham defender Kenny Tete is set to miss out again against Aston Villa on Thursday.

The right-back is suffering with a hamstring injury which has forced him to miss the past three games.

It has meant winger Bobby De Cordova-Reid has started the past two games at right-back, with boss Marco Silva preferring him over Kevin Mbabu, who played in the 4-1 loss to Newcastle.

Silva says Tete is continuing to do individual work and that he is unlikely to make the squad for Thursday’s game, though did not rule him out of making a return on Sunday against Leeds.

“We’ll keep assessing him,” Silva said.

“It will be difficult for him to be on the squad list (against Aston Villa) but again, we have to assess a bit more and to decide afterwards.

“He is doing his individual work. I have to be honest with you, we expected him to be ready earlier, probably for the last two games we expected him to be ready.

“He had some unfortunate setbacks in that situation. Let’s hope that he will be ready soon. Let’s see for the next match.”

Silva says he has no fresh injury concerns for the game against Villa, though striker Aleksandar Mitrovic is continuing to manage a foot problem.

Mitrovic sustained the injury while on international duty with Serbia and was forced off in Fulham’s defeat by Newcastle earlier this month, before missing the 3-1 loss to West Ham.

He returned to play 90 minutes and score in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth but afterwards admitted he had been in “a lot of pain”.

Silva, however, says he Mitrovic in a better condition ahead of the Villa game and will be available once again.

“We are managing him the best we can,” Silva said.

“Of course the feedback I got from our medical staff, and of course after the conversation with him before last game, we decided he would start.

“He played the whole game because the feedback I got from the medical staff and from him was that he was ready to play.

“Sometimes football players, they play with some pain in some moments of the season.

“The good thing is after the match, of course before that he didn’t have the best two weeks or three weeks to prepare himself in the best way, but after the match he was not worse than before.

“This is a good thing. Two days after, he was not worse than before which is a good sign for us.

“Of course we manage him and recover him and he will be ready for the match (against Aston Villa).”