RICARDO Gardner has been counted out of Wanderers' FA Cup replay at Blackburn on Wednesday night.

And the Jamaican international is also expected to be ruled out of Saturday's fixture - wherever it might be.

The statutory 'No football for a fortnight' was the rest cure ordered after Gardner suffered concussion playing for Jamaica in last Wednesday's 1-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago.

"He lost consciousness, so we've been told," Sam Allardyce explained today, "so he can't play for two weeks."

The Reebok boss is seething after the Jamaican Football Federation failed to inform him of the extent of his player's injury suffered in the World Cup qualifier.

Already at loggerheads with the JFF over their excessive demands on Gardner, he criticised them last week for not paying him the courtesy of a call and fired another blast as he counted the cost of his absence.

"Ricky has to see a neurologist today, just to check he is okay," the manager explained, "but the really disappointing aspect of all this is that we've still had no communication from the Jamaicans.

"That's an absolute disgrace. Ricky is as valuable to us as he is to them. Not communicating with us is just not acceptable.

"If we can do anything about it, we will!" Allardyce believes Gardner could have made a big difference to Wanderers' performance at Fulham yesterday when they came from behind to salvage a 1-1 draw in a top of the table clash that turned into a hot-tempered duel, culminating in Cottagers' striker Luis Boa Morte being sent off for spitting in Robbie Elliott's face.

It was a hard-earned point which kept them just ahead of Blackburn and Birmingham in the race for the second automatic promotion place - although both Graeme Souness' Rovers and Trevor Francis' Blues can overtake them if they win their games in hand.

After seeing his side struggle to make any headway at all in the first half and spend much of the second period on the back foot, Allardyce suggested: "The way we play on the break meant we missed Ricky an awful lot.

"We needed a full strength squad to play Fulham. If we had we'd have done better."

Nevertheless Wanderers were happy coming away from Craven Cottage with a point - Per Frandsen's second half free kick cancelling out Barry Hayles' 42nd minute strike, the third time in seven games the Dane has salvaged a draw.

John O'Kane and Kevin Nolan, suspended for the Fulham game, will be back in the reckoning for Wednesday's replay which, if they win, will earn Wanderers a quarter-final tie at Arsenal on Saturday. Defeat will see them at home to Gillingham as scheduled.

Allardyce, who selected Northern Ireland international Tommy Wright in place of Steve Banks after spending all last week trying in vain to sign a replacement keeper, praised the loan signing from Manchester City.

"Tommy was fine," he said. "He was there when he was needed. We had to bale him out in the first half when he came for a ball he couldn't get. We restricted Fulham to just two or three shots on target but he dealt with them well."