Crystal Palace ready to open training ground as players prepare for imminent return

Crystal Palace are preparing for an imminent return to training as the Eagles begin to work back towards a normal routine.

Players will soon be granted access to the pitches at their Copers Cope Road training ground for individual sessions, arriving in their kit and not using any of the facilities on site aside from the pitches.

Palace hope, so long as government guidelines allow, to soon see that move to small group sessions before, eventually, returning to normal training.

"The ideal contact will come when we can all meet up at the training ground in whatever form that's likely to take," manager Roy Hodgson told Sky Sports. "Any other form of contact isn't comparable.

"A telephone contact or a Zoom contact - it's nice to see the players are taking their work so seriously and working very hard to stay fit during this time. But it's not ideal that form of contact and I think I speak for everyone in football in saying I can't wait for the time when we see them again in a training environment."