Pavel Pogrebnyak has been warned by Fulham he will have to "bulk up like a beast" to be a hit in the English Premier League, he told Russian media on Tuesday.
The Russia international, 28, currently plays for Bundesliga side Vfb Stuttgart but is on the brink of a move to Craven Cottage after his agent Oleg Artemov told RIA Novosti that the lofty striker had passed a medical. The transfer window closes at midnight.
Pogrebnyak said Fulham had sent a medical team to examine him "several times" and been meticulous in their inspections.
“The English flew over to Stuttgart several times, thoroughly examining me. The medical yesterday lasted more than six hours. They examined every finger on my hand. I’ve never had such a long and thorough examination in my career," he told Sovsport.ru.
“The medical team from Fulham was left satisfied with my condition. They say that in England I will be able to bulk up even more physically and I’ll be powerful and agile, like a beast. In the Premier League strikers work a lot with their bodies and without physicality it’s difficult.”
Pogrebnyak said that a move to England would be difficult for his family. “If I was 20 or 23, I’d pack my suitcase and head for England without a second thought.
“But now I have a family and I should think of them. I’ve taken advice from those close to me. All the same, it’s not so easy to move to a new country, a new league.”
