Hodgon says an option right now could be to loan out the former Melbourne Victory starlet, who he says has been lacking in match fitness since he returned from a very long Olympics campaign with Graham Arnold's team.

"It's difficult for him," Hodgson says of Leijer, 23. "Our two centre backs have done extremely well.

"He came back from the Olympics not as fit as we thought he should have been.

"We were a bit disappointed about that because he didn't play many games at the Olympics. I think an overage player was bought in so he lost his spot."

Hodgson added: "He was away an awfully long time, from about the beginning of May, our season hadn't even ended when he left and he didn't come back until well after we'd started.

"So to be perfectly honest it took him a couple of months to get himself back into the type of fitness that we expect our players to have.

"But for the last couple of months he's been back on track and he's working hard at his game."

Leijer, 23, has been a peripheral figure in the first team at Craven Cottage since moving to London in mid-2007.

"What he needs now is games and it's important for him if we can't give him those games to find somewhere where he can get games, either on loan or if necessary to find a club that's prepared to really put him in the spotlight," added the Fulham boss.

"He's not a young player, of course he's young but he's not academy age. We regard young players as the 18, 19, maximum 20 year olds.

"Really we think that a player of 23 should be playing regular first team football. We can't offer it to him here at the moment but we're pleased with him.

"He's a very, very good character. He's a good player but he needs to play."

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