Fulham Badly Affected By Mitrovic Ban, Marco Silva Admits

The Cottagers have lost their last three Premier League games to fall out of contention for European football next season.

Mitrovic received the lengthy ban early last month after clashing with referee Chris Kavanagh during an FA Cup quarterfinal defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Mitrovic will serve the final match of his ban in Tuesday's Premier League clash against Leicester City when Fulham will look to halt their losing streak.

“Of course it’s been a tough period for him, like you expect,” said Silva.

“He’s been working hard, it has to be like that with no chance (to play) and the mood in some days is a little bit better than the others.

“He knew one month ago that he is going to be out eight games, it’s really tough for any player.

“If you have an injury, muscular injury or something that we know, ok, it’s part of life.

“But in all this situation, the way it has come for us, the way everything happened as well, the treatment behind all that scenario, it was really tough, not just for Mitro, I have to say for our football club. We felt something that is not good.”

Mitrovic, who had scored 11 goals in 21 top flight games this season before his ban, is due to return against Southampton this weekend.

Silva added: “We are here to support Mitro. It is up to him to keep working hard to where he can be as best as he can be from a physical point of view. It will be good to have him again for the next match.

“He is working hard and we are doing everything we can to keep him in a very good shape. He is doing his maximum as well to be, and of course when he is going to be available it’s up to me to decide if he’s ready to start the game or not.

“But this is another situation for the next match. He’s working hard and we are trying to keep it as best as it can be.”