Williams Battling To Be Fit For Everton Game

Swansea City defender Ashley Williams is battling against a virus to be fit for Saturday's home game against Everton.

Sickness meant that an impressive run of 166 consecutive League games played came to an end last weekend when he was forced to miss the 3-0 victory at Fulham.

The centre back is likely to miss another match unless his conditions improves, and manager Brendan Rodgers says they will monitor him over the next few days.

'We will have to assess Ash because he has lost a lot of fluid and he has only just started to eat again,'

'We will see how he is over the next 48 hours. He was not well before we played Manchester City — he had not eaten before the game, which was incredible really when you consider his level of performance.

'But something has come over him and he was throwing up before Fulham, so we will have to see how he is.' Should he recover in time for Everton, Williams would expect to reclaim his place in the Swansea side given his remarkable consistency since he last missed a league fixture way back in May 2008.

If Williams does miss out, Garry Monk will replace him against alongside Steven Caulker. Rodgers also praised Monk for his performance at Fulham last Saturday:

'We are very much a team and people know their roles and functions,'

'There's no doubt that when we don't have Ashley Williams, we are missing one of the leading centre-halves at this level.

'But Garry Monk's performance at Fulham was a wonderful credit to him and his professionalism.

'He is highly respected by the staff at this club and by the players.

'He comes in every day and does his work and that's a credit to his devotion to this club.

'Once he settled into the game he made some vital headers and his positioning was great — he got his reward for his concentration and focus on his work.'

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