Fulham have been dealt a big injury blow ahead of their Championship fixture this Saturday.

What's the latest?

According to a report by The Athletic, Tom Cairney has only taken part in training once since the arrival of Marco Silva at Craven Cottage earlier this summer, with the midfielder having to withdraw from this session due to a recurrence of his knee injury which has so far kept the 30-year-old out of action for nine months.

Speaking about Cairney's injury, the Portuguese manager stated: "It's a situation we have to see day by day. He had one training session with me and then he got worse, and after we decided to stop him."

It is then claimed that the Scotland international will not be available for the Huddersfield Town fixture this afternoon, with his return date being unknown at present. Harrison Reed and Terence Kongolo are also set to miss the clash due to knocks, while Anthony Knockaert is a doubt due to a back injury.

Silva will be gutted

While knocks to the likes of Reed, Kongolo and Knockaert will come as a blow to Silva, it is Cairney's ongoing injury in particular which will leave the 44-year-old gutted.

The absence of the midfielder was drastically felt by Fulham last season, and considering the level of his performances in the club's last promotion-winning campaign, he would very much appear to be a player who has the ability to fire the Cottagers back to the top flight once again this term.

Indeed, over his 34 Championship appearances for Fulham in 2019/20, the £8.1m-rated ace bagged eight goals, provided three assists and created six big chances for his teammates, taking 1.1 shots and making 1.8 key passes per game.

These returns saw the £27k-per-week midfielder earn an average SofaScore match rating of 7.12, ranking him as the club's second-best performer in the second tier that year.

As such, Silva will undoubtedly be hoping that Cairney will be able to recover from his knee injury as quickly as possible, as the 30-year-old would most likely be a key player for the Portuguese manager this season whenever he's available once more.

However, with it appearing very uncertain at present as to exactly when the Scot will make his return to first-team football, Silva will simply need to make do without the midfielder for a little while longer just yet, starting with Huddersfield this weekend. Not knowing when the 30-year-old will be back in action must be a killer for the new Fulham manager.

In other news: Silva must axe Fulham's £3.6m-rated flop with "Barca DNA", he's stealing a living