Hamburger SV will be without striker Mladen Petrić for at least the first leg of their UEFA Europa League semi-final tie against Fulham FC.

The Croatian international, who has scored five goals in the competition, tore muscle fibres in his groin during training this week. He will certainly miss the visit of Fulham next Thursday, and is doubtful for the return in London seven days later. "If all goes well, he will be sidelined for two weeks," said Hamburg coach Bruno Labbadia, "but typically this injury takes about three weeks to heal."

Petrić, 29, had already suffered from groin problems in recent matches against R. Standard de Liège and VfL Bochum 1848. "I wanted to take things slowly this week," the forward said. "Maybe I should not have trained at all."