JOHN Pantsil could be a due for another long spell on the sidelines – despite a fans’ campaign to keep him at Fulham.

The supporters’ favourite has yet to open new contract negotiations on a deal that runs out in the summer, and boss Mark Hughes admitted the Ghanaian World Cup player has been affected by his third own goal of the season at Aston Villa last week.

The unwanted gaffe equals a dubious Premiership record set by Andreas Jakobsson at Southampton five years ago for scoring at the wrong end.

Hughes said: "It’s affected him confidence wise. There have been similar situations where he has not dealt with things as well as he could.

"And we’ll look at the games ahead of us and make sure John and everyone is in the best frame of mind."

The manager has options, not least of which is that Chris Baird moves across to his favoured right side of defence and returns Carlos Salcido to the left, which ended up being the permutation that secured a 2-2 draw at Villa.

The manager added: "There’s a lot of players we can move around who play in a number of positions – and with players coming back from injury I have options."

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