Roy Hodgson admits he cannot wait for the new year to roll around as his injury-hit Fulham side continue to battle for precious Premier League points.

The Cottagers were held to a 1-1 draw by Bolton last Saturday when a win would have seen them climb to seventh, matching last season’s efforts.

But with his side shorn of Andy Johnson, Bobby Zamora, Danny Murphy, Dickson Etuhu and Diomansy Kamara, Hodgson had nothing but praise for his under-strength squad.

He said: “I think the boys are doing extremely well just to keep our heads above the water and to keep us hovering around in mid-table.

“Any team is going to miss players of the quality of those we have out, and everyone has really knuckled down.

“I’m looking forward to the new year when everyone will be fit again, and we have a bit of a gap between each game to prepare properly.”

With Johnson the signs are not great, with the striker undergoing an exploratory operation on Saturday to locate the reason behind a persistent groin problem.

Hodgson added: “We just want to know what the problem is.

“Each week we are never sure whether he is going to be OK and that is a real issue for us.

“We are just waiting for the results to come back but hopefully we can get the issue sorted sooner rather than later.”

Damien Duff struck a late equaliser as the Londoners secured a fully-deserved point at the Cottage on Saturday.

And Hodgson will be looking for more of the same when Sunderland are the visitors on Sunday.

He added: “If we had lost that game it would have been a bitter pill to swallow.

“I thought our second half performance was excellent and it rounded off a very difficult week for us.

“With all our injury problems we are battling on and we need to continue doing that.”

Fulham’s next three games: Dec 3 CSKA sofia (EL, h), 6 Sunderland (h), 12 Burnley (a)