Fulham boss Martin Jol reveals Pavel Pogrebnyak doubt for Stoke City clash

The 28-year-old is yet to obtain a work permit to allow him to play in the Premier League and may miss out on his debut 11 days after signing at Craven Cottage

By Sion Cleaver

Pavel Pogrebnyak, VfB Stuttgart
Bongarts
Martin Jol has revealed new signing Pavel Pogrebnyak could be a doubt to make his debut for Fulham against Stoke City next Saturday.

The Russia international completed his move to Craven Cottage from Stuttgart on deadline day but Jol revealed complications are likely to hinder the striker's chances of integrating fully with the squad before his side's home clash against Tony Pulis' men.

“He has not got a work permit but hopefully he will be in the country at the end of the week. We think Thursday, maybe Friday,” said Jol.

Fulham were beaten 3-0 by Manchester City on Saturday evening, leaving Jol's men with just eight points from 12 away games this term.

Sergio Aguero opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Adam Johnson was fouled in the area by Chris Baird, but Jol believes the decision was harsh.

“The first goal was a soft penalty," he said. "Maybe Johnson did well - it is a decision for the referee to make but I felt it was soft. And the second was an own-goal so you could say we were a little bit unlucky."

Baird then scored an own goal to double City's lead before Edin Dzeko completed the victory after a fine run from Aguero.

“You can always expect a defeat here because City are a good team, but we knew that before the game," said Jol.

“We looked okay when we kept the ball but not when we didn’t have it. If you keep the ball against them, you can create something.

“We had some good attacks but we lacked the awareness - that was probably because of the score.”


 
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England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 4-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

Hosted by Joe Doyle
20:06 BST
So, that game gave a few players a chance to impress for England. Who did/didn't? Will Welbeck start against France? Or Carroll? Or Defoe?!

19:59 BST
Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they are trailing the Netherlands 4-0 at half-time. Looks like that one's all sewn up then.
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
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