Hodgson hides extent of Palace injury crisis ahead of Gameweek 17

Crystal Palace continue to be ravaged by injuries as Roy Hodgson confirmed that Patrick van Aanholt (£5.5m) and Jeffrey Schlupp (£5.5m) are unavailable for Gameweek 17.

He also committed arguably the cardinal of Fantasy Premier League sins by admitting that there were potentially a couple of other players with injury issues but refused to reveal any names.

The fact that the Eagles are about to host their rivals Brighton is probably the reason behind Hodgson’s decision, but it certainly does cast a bit of a shadow over any Palace options for Gameweek 17.

Naturally, the interest remains focussed on Martin Kelly (£4.3m) and Vicente Guaita (£5.1m) given Palace’s recent defensive record but, at this stage, we cannot confirm whether or not either of them are suffering from hidden knocks.

“Patrick van Aanholt and Jeff Schlupp will definitely be ruled out through injury, alongside Joel Ward. There might be more names added to that list unfortunately but I’m not willing to divulge that currently. I don’t know how long Schlupp will be out but it’s going to keep him out for a period of time. We will have to wait and see. There is no return date for van Aanholt but he’s very keen to come back as soon as possible. We will have to wait and see how is rehabilitation progresses and we are in the hands of the medical staff.” – Roy Hodgson

Kelly’s chances of starting are still relatively strong given that Joel Ward (£4.4m) is still on the sidelines. Despite making some good progress, the chances of him appearing in the Palace team over Christmas are low.

“(Joel Ward) is progressing as he should but the original prognosis is that it was going to be a long one. He is going in the right direction but you won’t be seeing him over the Christmas period.” – Roy Hodgson

With Mamadou Sakho (£5.0m) suspended for another two matches, some Fantasy managers might be a little concerned about the number of absences at the back, and whether that could impact on Palace’s clean sheet potential.

Their recent update means that no recognised full-back is fit right now, or for several matches, so centre-back/defensive midfielder Jairo Riedewald (£4.5m) and Kelly will have to fill in at left and right-back respectively.

There was better news from the Leicester camp ahead of Norwich’s visit to the King Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Brendan Rodgers has no new fitness concerns for Gameweek 17, which allowed him to discuss Jamie Vardy‘s (£10.1m) remarkable powers of recovery despite his relatively older age.

He discussed the use of cryotherapy to keep his players in top condition and given the Foxes’ form in recent weeks, it seems as if it is producing decent results.

“Some of the players use it. There are lots of benefits for the players, especially in recovery. (Vardy) has it in his house. For players, it’s one of the big features of the modern game, it’s the recovery aspect. To get the muscles back to fitness as quick as they can.” – Brendan Rodgers

There were no fresh injury concerns for Chris Wilder as he gave his press conference on Thursday afternoon.

He confirmed that Oliver Norwood (£4.9m) was withdrawn against Norwich to avoid another yellow card while Lys Mousset (£5.1m) came off because he had not trained much in the week before.

“(Mousset) will be okay. He didn’t train much late on in the week, which was disappointing, but he’ll be fine. The bereavement hit him quite hard but he wanted to play at Norwich.” – Chris Wilder

Sean Dyche was busier in his Thursday press conference as he gave a lengthy injury update.

Ashley Barnes (£6.3m) and Ashley Westwood (£5.4m) both trained in the build-up to a Gameweek 17 meeting with Newcastle while Phil Bardsley (£4.3m) was unable to do so.

“(Ashley) Barnes got out training with us today and so did Ashley Westwood. We’ve got to see how they react to that but we’re hopeful on them two. (Phil) Bardsley might get out (to training) tomorrow so we’ll wait and see on that one.” – Sean Dyche

That could see Matt Lowton (£4.4m) retain his place at right-back as Dyche is usually a lot slower to reintroduce players from injury than other managers in the league.

That appears to be the approach he is taking with Kevin Long (£4.3m) and Charlie Taylor (£4.2m), which is good news for owners of left-back Erik Pieters (£4.5m).

“Kevin Long is making progress but won’t figure at the weekend. Charlie Taylor is touch and go. We’ll probably edge on the side of caution.” – Sean Dyche

Finally, it will be interesting to see which of Chris Wood (£6.2m) and Jay Rodriguez (£5.7m) can feature against Newcastle.

The New Zealand international has supposedly carried a knock this week while Rodriguez has broken a bone in his little finger.

“Wood has carried a bit of a knock but we expect him to be okay. Jay Rodriguez broken his little finger and got a splint on it to protect it. It was just an accident in training but that should be okay. He’s got a special cast on it to protect it.” – Sean Dyche

There was mixed news to come out of Ralph Hasenhüttl’s Thursday press conference.

Stuart Armstrong (£5.2m) has returned from his hamstring problems to present an alternative option in midfield but Sofiane Boufal (£5.5m) is still struggling with a toe problem.

The Moroccan international sustained the knock a few weeks back when he stubbed the toe on his kitchen table at home but has been involved in two of the last three Premier League matches.

Hasenhüttl revealed on Thursday that Boufal has been unable to train without injections recently and that the injury will again have to be managed ahead of West Ham’s trip to the south coast.

“Sofiane (Boufal) is still not able to train without injection. He still has a big pain in his toe. It takes time. In the last games, we always try and make him fit. We will have a look at how he improves.” – Ralph Hasenhüttl

Meanwhile, Yan Valery (£4.6m) is ruled out with a virus infection which could keep him on the sidelines for some time.

“(Yan Valery) was out for last two weeks and I think he’s out for a long time. He has a virus infection. It takes time (to recover from).” – Ralph Hasenhüttl

Manuel Pellegrini confirmed that Lukasz Fabianski (£4.9m) and Manuel Lanzini (£6.2m) were both still out with hip and shoulder problems respectively while Jack Wilshere (£4.7m) is still working through some pain.

There were no injury updates on Andriy Yarmolenko (£5.6m) and Aaron Cresswell (£4.7m), however.