Hodgson acknowledges important players’ return to fitness ahead of the Newcastle game.

Hodgson acknowledges important players’ return to fitness ahead of the Newcastle game.

While Crystal Palace are still missing some key players due to injury, Roy Hodgson has stated that the huge injury list that caused such selection issues before the international break has been greatly reduced.

“It’s better news,” Hodgson stated during his pre-match press conference. “However, we lost James Tomkins yesterday due to a calf injury.” He’s getting a scan today.

“I hope it’s not serious, but that’s a bit of a blow because he was there until yesterday.”

“We’re now really down to [Michael] Olise, [Ebere] Eze, [Dean] Henderson, who are all injured for an extended period of time, and Jeff Schlupp, who came off injured in our last game against Nottingham Forest, and although he’s getting better quickly, he won’t be ready for our game tomorrow.”

“The only other one, who hasn’t really been in the first-team squad for a while now unfortunately, is Nathan Ferguson, but the good news for him is that he is playing some games for the Under-21s team and making progress, so even that is very positive news.”

Hodgson will be relieved, since he was without Cheick Doucouré, Jefferson Lerma, Odsonne Edouard, and others before the break.

The manager was hesitant to give a timetable for the players who are still out injured, but he did state that the medical team is working hard to get them ready for Premier League action.

“Tomkins I can’t [give a timeline] because he is having a scan today, but he was training perfectly well until he felt a calf yesterday so I’m hoping that won’t be a massive blow,” Hodgson went on to say.

“The other two [Eze and Olise] are making good progress, but getting ETAs on them is difficult because the doctor is extremely cautious about when they can be allowed back in.”

“It’s the kind of injury that’s really difficult to test, but if we don’t get testing done to the Nth degree and just throw people in, you might cause some damage.”

“They are getting closer, but I can’t tell you much more than that.”