Fulham boss Mark Hughes has warned striker Bobby Zamora that he will not walk back into the first team once he returns from a broken leg. Zamora is on the brink of making his comeback from almost five months on the sidelines after undergoing surgery in September.
The Cottagers have struggled in his absence as seen in their lower table position.
But they go into Saturday's trip to Aston Villa having won six of their last nine games in all competitions and 12th in the league table.
"He understands that the squad is evolving now and the squad is getting bigger and stronger," said Hughes, who this week added Eidur Gudjohnsen to his pool of forwards.
"Bobby knows that he needs to work hard to get back in the side but, given his desire to get back in, that shouldn't faze him at all."
"Bobby was a big factor in the success of the team last year, when he was the focal point of the team's attacking play," Hughes said.
"So, to take him out of the team so early in the season was obviously going to have a detrimental effect on us.
"We've missed Moussa Dembele for almost half the Premier League games we've been involved in, so that was a loss as well.
"In recent weeks we've been able to welcome him back and, obviously, Andy Johnson's playing really, really well at the moment."
