Roy Hodgson says Crystal Palace are stretched to their ‘absolute limit’ as they prepare to face Southampton just two days after their 0-0 draw with Manchester City.
The Eagles, despite ending City’s 18-game unbeaten run paid the price at Selhurst Park, losing Scott Dann and Jason Puncheon to injury, both being stretchered off.
Their two names can now be added to Palace’s lengthy injury list as they look to navigate the remainder of the festive period, with a derby against Brighton to come in the FA Cup just days after their trip to St. Mary’s.
There were a few encouraging performances from those on the fringes in south London on New Year’s Eve, though Hodgson concedes he still has a highly depleted squad to deal with.
“Massively, massively,” Hodgson said when asked just how stretched his squad is ahead of their trip south.
“Not just at the moment, but going forward. Because Sakho has been out now for a month and is likely to be out for a few more weeks to come, with a quite serious injury.
“Joel Ward is still recovering and there is no sign of him recovering in the next few days that’s for sure and then we’ve lost Scott Dann, we’ve lost Jason Puncheon so I’m afraid we’ve stretched our resources to the absolute limit.
“That’s why [against Manchester City] I thought it was nice to see three players who’ve not really had many chances; Jairo Riedewald who during my time has not had many chances at all, Patrick van Aanholt and Tim Fosu-Mensah who have had very few chances, if any recently, to come in and do as well as they did.
“We will recover one or two players who were unable to play before Southampton.”
