Fulham (0) Hamburg (0):BOBBY ZAMORA will discover at about noon today whether his sore Achilles will allow him to face Hamburg in the second leg of the Europa League semi-final at Craven Cottage, after the opening game in Germany ended goalless.

For Zamora, the best player of Fulham’s superb season, it would be a dreadful disappointment to miss what would be the most glittering occasion of his career so far.

“Bobby has made a fantastic contribution and will be devastated not to play and help the side reach the final,” said Fulham manager Roy Hodgson.

“The decision will be made between myself and the medical team and Bobby Zamora. He wants to play to help his team-mates do well, but I want to make sure he will get through the game.”

If Zamora is passed fit he will run out at a packed Cottage under the bright lights of big-time European club football conscious that another decisive performance could propel Fulham into the next month’s final, and his own star into Capello’s England constellation for the summer’s World Cup. The Italian will be there tonight watching him.

In scoring 19 goals this season, eight in European competition, Zamora has made himself Fulham’s stellar performer, and the player Hodgson and his team-mates most want to see lacing up his boots.

“Even though we are a team unit, without Bobby we would not be in the semi-final,” says Danny Murphy, the Fulham captain who won this competition in 2001 with Liverpool, when it was the Uefa Cup.

“Bobby has become the star this season because of the goals he has scored – our player of the year for sure.”

It has been some transformation for Zamora (29) who has swapped the jeers of his own club’s fans for Ruud van Nistelrooy’s endorsement that he now deserves a late charge at making it as an international footballer.

In the absence of injured record signing Andy Johnson, Zamora has thrived. Now he is no longer playing off the former Crystal Palace forward as he had in their debut season together. Zoltan Gera is in the withdrawn role now, Zamora leading the line.

“If you get a couple of goals the confidence starts flowing, and (also) his role has changed a little bit,” Murphy says.

“Last season he was a bit deeper with Andy Johnson higher up the pitch. But this season he has been a bit higher up and come into play. The amount of games means he has been out there to get the goals. It’s mainly the confidence, and he can play higher up to be more of a threat.”

Had the jeers of the home crowd been an inspiration?

“He’s always played with the same work ethic,” Murphy says.

“I think his disappointment and controversial goal celebrations have been a little bit about the fact that when he came to the club a minority of supporters were quick to jump on him. It also shows he has held it inside for some time – but he is proving his worth this season and more.”

Zamora has become Fulham’s totem, a striker enjoying a 15-game campaign that has included goals against Juventus, Roma, holders Shakhtar Donetsk and Wolfsburg (the German champions). According to those who knew him as a boy playing for the famous Senrab boys club in east London as a 10-year-old, Zamora has always been a fighter.

“If he didn’t score he was one of those players that would lay on the floor, hit the floor, and cry his eyes out then get back up and start again,” says Tony Purse, the father of Darren Purse, a Sheffield Wednesday central defender who also played for Senrab.

“He always wanted to be a winner, always wanted to do well.”

Zamora thrived in a glittering Senrab team that was unbeaten for more than three years and produced three future England internationals, John Terry, Ledley King and Paul Konchesky. Zamora, like Fulham, hopes he can play tonight to make a final push to join them.