A bright afternoon for Crystal Palace has had a dampener thrown on it after James Tomkins left Selhurst Park yesterday on crutches.
The former West Ham academy graduate joined Palace in the summer in a £10m deal to add some quality to the back four and he showed that quality yesterday on his full Premier League debut for the Eagles by scoring the opener in a 4-1 win over Stoke.
However, it wasn’t all positive for Palace and Tomkins yesterday as the defender suffered an apparent knee injury and was brought off at half-time and left the stadium on crutches after full time.
Alan Pardew commented on Tomkins’ status after the game and he hopes that his hyper-extended knee injury isn’t too bad.
“He [Tomkins] has a good first half but just over-stretched his knee a little bit when he made a tackle before half-time.” Pardew told reporters after the game, per the London Evening Standard.
“We’ll just have to see how it is. Hopefully it’s not too bad.”
Daniel Delaney replaced Tomkins at half-time and will deputise for Tomkins in defence for the time being. Delaney and Scott Dann are two established players who were Palace’s long-time centre-back pairing of late before Tomkins’ arrival so there shouldn’t be much of an adjustment period if any.
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