Fulham journalist Guy Barlow has been sharing his thoughts on the possibility of Cottagers club captain Tom Cairney returning from a knee injury and potentially playing ahead of Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
This comes after Barlow recently made an appearance on The Athletic’s Fulham-themed podcast Fulhamish where he spoke about a number of topics concerning the west London club.
On the subject of a potential return from injury for Cairney and whether or not he would play ahead of Ruben Loftus-Cheek in the Premier League before the end of the season, Barlow had this to say on the matter. (35.42)
He said: “In terms of Cairney’s fitness, he might not be able to go back up and running straight away.
“There’s no doubt that he is an incredibly creative player who could slides passes through to [Josh] Maja and we could be scoring for days. I just don’t think that right now, there is justification for bringing Cairney straight back in.”
Fulham signed Cairney back in 2015 from Championship side Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £3.78 million. Since then, the 30-year-old, who is currently valued at £8.1 million, has gone on to make 217 appearances for the club in which he has managed to score 37 goals and provide 28 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Guy Barlow’s comments on Cairney and his return…
Given how Cairney hasn’t featured for Fulham in the Premier League since December, it could be difficult for the Scotsman to get back to full speed in terms of his match fitness.
Would you put Cairney back into the team when he returns from injury?
Yes
No
However, taking into account how the midfielder managed to earn himself a decent season rating of 6.84/10 for his performances in the early stages of the campaign, scoring one goal and providing one assist along the way, perhaps he could be a useful figure in their team to try and help them dodge relegation this season when he returns from his knee injury.