Gary Cahill an injury doubt for Crystal Palace as Joel Ward ruled out until 2020

Injured: Gary Cahill
Getty Images
Jack Rosser @JackRosser_28 November 2019

Gary Cahill is a doubt for Crystal Palace's trip to Burnley weekend after suffering a knee injury this week, while Joel Ward has been ruled out for the rest of the year.

The former Chelsea defender, who moved to Selhurst Park on a free transfer over the summer, trained alone on Thursday and will be assessed at Palace's training ground on Friday before the squad travel north in the afternoon.

Cahill has been Hodgson's best performer this season as their impressive defensive form has helped balance the lack of goals scored over the early months of the campaign.

Palace will also be without Ward until the new year after he suffered a serious knee injury in the 2-1 defeat to Liverpool. Ward is Palace's only natural senior right-back, meaning Martin Kelly will have to cover in his absence.

"They are reluctant to put a date because they are frightened you are going to come back after a period of time and demand the player returns," Hodgson said.

Crystal Palace squad 2019-20 | Injuries, contracts and squad numbers

1/21

"But it is a serious knee injury n the sense it will keep him off for a number of weeks rather than a number of days. I can tell you exactly what the time scale is but it will be a considerable amount of time."

Losing Ward, and perhaps Cahill, ahead of run of seven games in 30 days over the festive period leaves Hodgson in a precarious position.

However, while there are other weaker areas of the squad the former England manager is at least well-stocked at centre back, with Mamadou Sakho working back to full fitness having turned out for the under 23s this week.

"Mamadou has been fine for a while," said Hodgson. "The last two weeks he’s been training so it’s just a question of getting back, if you like, to the full fitness level he wants to achieve and to do that he’s got to play some matches."

Predict the weekend's Premier League results.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in