Eagles striker Christian Benteke is looking likely to be left out of the squad due to injury as Palace face the Bluebirds at the Cardiff City Stadium.
The Belgian forward clashed with Everton defender Michael Keane last weekend and the striker was reported to have damaged his cheekbone.
Roy Hodgson spoke about the matter in his pre-match press conference, as cited on Eir Sport, saying:
Unfortunately Christian Benteke took a nasty blow to the head 10 or 15 minutes before the end of the game with Michael Keane so he’s suffering from that blow.
Benteke, who has been unable to train as a result of the clash with Keane, scored his first goal in 358 days when he found the back of the net against Arsenal recently. This being the longest drought the striker has suffered in his career.
However, it doesn’t look like Benteke is going to get a chance to continue his form this weekend.
We’ll see how it goes but he’s very unlikely for Saturday. We haven’t ruled him out for next week. He’s damaged his cheekbone which has needed treatment that has kept him out of training this week.
Palace have quite the injury list developing at the moment with Pape Souare, James Tomkins, Jeffrey Schlupp and Mamadou Sakho all ruled out for the game on Saturday but the gaffer remains positive about his squad.
Apart from Christian I’ve got a lot to choose from apart from those we talk about every week.
It’s a must win for Saturday’s opposition as they try to find a way to safety but for the Eagles, a 12th place finish is looking very likely.
