Philippe Christanval is back in training at Fulham.

"I've been back in training for one week now," he told fulhamfc.com. "So after four months out I can finally say that I'm ok. After a long injury you need to work a lot on the pitch but it's good to be back."

His return has also given Roy Hodgson another defensive option to consider as the Whites look to push up the league table; however, as Christanval explained, this weekend's match against Arsenal might have come a bit too soon.

"I think it might be too early because I need to play with the Reserves first," he told fulhamfc.com. "I would love to play because it's a great game to come back for. Arsenal have been playing very well this season, nice football, nice passing. They're a very good team with plenty of good players but in football one game is one game. If we want to win we need to have confidence and enjoy the game."

Whilst Hodgson has been undoubtedly assessing Christanval's abilities on the pitch, the defender has been more than impressed by the new Fulham Manager.

"He talks with everybody and tries to give everybody confidence so they [the players] all think he's good," Christanval said. "He has a lot of experience and he knows what he says. He worked in Italy and many different countries so he knows football.

"His tactics make sense and he asks players to try and play and be confident. If you try to do that every day in training it will make things better in the game - I'm sure of that."