Fulham coach Roy Hodgson believes veteran striker Jari Litmanen could yet play a crucial role in their fight for Premier League survival.Litmanen is back in training following a minor heart scare but his first-team chances have been limited due to the recent form of Brian McBride and Eddie Johnson.

That has kept the pressure off Litmanen to make an immediate return but as Hodgson points out, the Finland striker could still become part of his firepower as the season reaches its climax.

Litmanen, now 37 and dubbed 'The King' back home, has enough experience and pedigree to boost Fulham's survival hopes after collecting a record number of caps for his country as well as being Finland's all-time top goalscorer.

Former Finland boss Hodgson knows Litmanen could prove to be the "joker" in his pack with eight games remaining.

"To know Jari Litmanen as I did, having worked with him, and to know we could get him here was just a great joker to play in our pack," said Hodgson.

"At the moment, because he hasn't been fully able to get himself fit to figure, it's not been a fortunate joker but still a good one to have around.

"You can't have too many front players. They're the ones that injuries happen to and they lose form, so you can never have too many going into a situation like we are.

"I'm delighted to have Jari around. He is playing with his usual enthusiasm. He's certainly not match fit but he might just get there.

"I'm lucky in the sense that with McBride and Johnson doing well I don't miss Jari quite so much as I may have done had it been a disastrous situation.

"I may have been looking in midweek and saying 'My God, when are you going to be fit?'. But I can be more relaxed about it because the other guys are doing okay.

"When Jari is mechanically fit he's never far away from being match fit. He keeps himself very fit. When we (Finland) played Azerbaijan he hadn't played for a football team for five months. He'd not done one training session outside of the Finnish national team and he played 90 minutes.

"He's contracted to us until the end of the season and then we'll take a further assessment of the situation and talk to him again. Who knows - maybe he'll be fit and we'll like what we see and want to keep him for next season."

Fulham's bid to avoid the drop will largely hinge on them turning their awful away record around.

Five of their remaining eight games are away from Craven Cottage and Fulham have not won on their travels for 18 months.

But even so, Hodgson still believes the relegation battle will go right down to the final day of the season and insists he is not suffering with the pressure of trying to keep the Cottagers in the top flight.

Hodgson added: "I think it could go down to the wire. There seems to be a bigger number of teams down there than there has been for many years. I can't remember quite so many teams. I think this year there are more than five.

"But I think there is a lot of experience in the team and I think that counts in these matches.

"I have had sleepless nights for as long as I can remember but they don't necessarily have to be to do with matches.

"When you are invited to become a member of a very elite clan - Premier League managers - you know what you are taking on.

"You have even got to embrace that pressure to some extent because it is where you want to be. I was quite happy when I got the chance to become manager of Fulham.

"I realised it was not going to be an easy job and they made it clear I wasn't being given an easy job.

"It would be so much nicer with eight matches to go if we were in the same position as

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