Roy Hodgson concerned by growing Crystal Palace injury list – as WIlfried Zaha hobbles off in victory over Newcastle United

BY SAM SMITH

Wilfried Zaha hobbling off against Newcastle United has presented further concern over a growing injury list at Crystal Palace, Roy Hodgson has admitted.

The forward withdrew midway through the second half of Palace’s 2-1 win over the Magpies. Broadcasters BT revealed on commentary that the Palace bench had confirmed it to be a hamstring injury – although Hodgson did not go as far in his post-match media duties.

Palace now have eight injured senior players. They include defenders James Tomkins, Mamadou Sakho, Joel Ward and Nathan Ferguson. Midfielders James McArthur, James McCarthy and Jeffrey Schlupp are also all joined on the mounting list by Zaha.

Hodgson said: “No news on it (Zaha’s injury), we’ll have to get it assessed first of all. That will take some time and I don’t think I will know the extent of the injury before Thursday.

“Problems? Yes, it does give us problems. At the moment we are suffering a spade of injuries. We lost McArthur before the game against Wolves, in that game we lost McCarthy who had taken his place. We lost Joel Ward.

“We’ve also lost Jeff Schlupp and James Tomkins. If we have lost Wilf, too, then that it six very, very important players out of our team. To be frank, it’s not easy for any team to lose six of their starting players.”