Cairney and Ayite return for Fulham ahead of Villa clash

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Fulham’s Tom Cairney and Floyd Ayite have both returned to training, leaving Tomas Kalas as the only Whites player on the sidelines.

Cairney returns after missing Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw with Norwich City, while winger Ayite has been out for more than five weeks with an ankle injury.

Centre-back Kalas, who is on loan from Chelsea, has a hamstring injury that will rule him out of Saturday’s trip to Aston Villa.

Full-back Ryan Fredericks, who underwent ankle surgery in pre-season, made his first appearance of the campaign as a substitute against Norwich.

Villa are expected to be without captain Tommy Elphick and fellow defender Micah Richards. Both missed the midweek win over Reading with calf injuries.

Fulham have steadied the ship since a dismal recent run and will be looking to build on their last couple of results.

They came from behind to beat Barnsley 4-2 at the weekend and  then pulled off another comeback on Tuesday when they secured a point at home to promotion hopefuls Norwich after being 2-0 down at half-time.

Struggling Villa are 17th in the Championship table but have taken four points from their two matches since Steve Bruce took over as the club’s manager following the departure of Roberto Di Matteo.