Crystal Palace have been handed an injury blow after their influential attacker Wilfried Zaha suffered a suspected adductor muscle injury while away on international duty with the Ivory Coast.
The 25-year-old played 90 minutes in The Elephant’s 4-0 win over Central African Republic on Friday but flew back to London on Monday to deal with his knock and missed their goalless draw with the same opposition yesterday.
The news will be most unwelcome to Palace boss Roy Hodgson, whose team tend to struggle for goals without the presence of their captain. The player is believed to be undergoing tests and is a doubt
They struggle for results, too, and remarkably they haven’t won a Premier League game without Zaha in the starting lineup for over a calendar year. Everton are next up for them, they travel to Merseyside on Sunday to face Marco Silva’s men.
Fretting as much or in some cases more than Hodgson will be the Fantasy Premier League players of the world, many of whom rely on the impact of Zaha at weekends to keep their heads held high in work on Monday mornings.
That is now under threat and the jump in bookmaker’s prices reflect the impact that the absence of the forward would have on Palace’s chances of winning on their return to action after the end of the blight of the international break.
They were generally priced up at 3/1 for their visit to Goodison early last week, and as short as 29/10 with one operator, and are now a general 18/5 shot.
So heavy is the reliance of his side on his shoulders, Zaha’s wellbeing has been shown to have FPL lineup-changing and bookmaker line-changing importance.
