SAM Allardyce is worried Sunday's game against Fulham may be coming a day too soon.

With Thursday night's UEFA Cup trip to Guimaraes still in his players' legs, the Bolton boss must send out a team capable of getting at least a point at Craven Cottage.

It is not an easy task and recent experience tells Allardyce they might struggle to acquire the necessary energy levels.

After their last UEFA Cup tie, at home to Zenit St Petersburg, also on a Thursday night, Wanderers had four days to recover before playing Tottenham in the Premiership on the Monday night.

Allardyce believes that extra day his players had to recover on that occasion compared to this week made all the difference.

He said: "For the Zenit game, Sky were very good to us, as they always are, because we played Tottenham on the Monday night after the European game on the Thursday and we battered Tottenham.

"The extra rest we had meant we were able to maintain our level of fitness for longer and keep Tottenham out towards the end of the game.

"Had we played the Spurs game on the Sunday instead of the Monday we might not have played so well."

Not only are Wanderers playing on Sunday after a Thursday game this week, but both matches are away from home, whereas the Zenit and Spurs games were both at the Reebok.

It is a draining couple of fixtures which are also hardly the best preparation for a Carling Cup tie against Leicester on Wednesday and the Premiership visit of Arsenal next Saturday.

The congestion of fixtures Wanderers are about to experience is a price they are having to pay for their success.

Still in the UEFA and Carling Cups and flying high in the Premiership with an FA Cup campaign to come, these are tiring as well as exciting times at the Reebok.

One of the challenges it poses is that Allardyce has to pick sides capable of winning games while remaining fit and fresh enough for the next one.

Team selection is something of a balancing act, but one the Wanderers boss is succeeding at so far.

The test is going to become more difficult, however, as Wanderers face a glut of games over the next couple of months.

Beginning with the game in Portugal a couple of days ago, Wanderers have, on average, a match every four days to January 14 after which they will lose five first team players to the African Nations Cup. That tournament takes place in Egypt between January 20 and Feburary 10 and will rob Wanderers of El-Hadji Diouf, Abdoulaye Faye, Jay Jay Okocha, Radhi Jaidi and Khalilou Fadiga.

Allardyce concedes he knows when he signs African players that they will not be available for Bolton games during the African Nations Cup but insists that does not make it right.

"It is only the Premier League who will not recognise the African Nations Cup and we have to suffer that more than anyone else.

"We take African players because they are cheap enough and we can afford them.

"If those five players are called up, and I am sure they will be, it will leave us with 15 outfield players who we think are capable of playing in the Premiership, and that is a very low number.

"Without those players we are devastated. And those five players could come back and be so fatigued that they are unable to play for us.

"I think the Premier League have every sympathy with me but they would turn around and ask where we would fit the games in if we called them off.

"If that was the case then I would rather play three or four games a week with those five players back than play them without them."

Allardyce will come face to face with the London media on Sunday after having some harsh words to say about them during his press conference this week.

"Nobody can complain about this (having to play games without African players) more than me," he said.

"If I complain, they say I am bleating, but if Jose Mourinho complains it is OK."