Garry Monk has called on his team mates to beat Fulham for injured midfielder Darren Pratley

The Swansea City captain believes that it is "a tragedy" that Pratley has been denied the chance to take on his former team mates after injury ruled him out for a couple of months.

Pratley was on a high when the draw pitted the Swans against his former employers but joy turned to despair a little over 48 hours later when injury ruled him out of the tie and the immediate part of the Swans play off push.

And as his team mates rally around, Monk wants to lead the Swans into the quarter finals and believes that Pratley's injury is an incentive for that to happen.

Monk told News of the World "It's a tragedy for Darren that he's out of the Fulham game.

"We all knew how desperate he was to play against his old club.  It has given us an even greater incentive to beat them now.

"The message in the dressing room before the game will simply be 'let's do this for Darren'.   We won't need anything bigger than that to spur us on.

"He's been in to see the lads and wished us all the best but he's really upset about the injury.  We're not sure he'll be at the game.  He's going away to have some treatment on his shoulder and he said he wants to see his family and friends in London.  Whether he's there or not we'll be doing everything we can to give him a boost.

"This game may be harder than the last round because Fulham are doing well in the Premier League.

"Maybe we played Portsmouth at the right time because they're not having a good time at the moment.  We know we've still got it all to do.   They have some great players but we'll be confident.

"We've got nothing to lose and everything to gain."

Photo: Action Images

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