Roy Hodgson admits Crystal Palace must prove there's more to them than Wilfried Zaha

Star man | Zaha
REUTERS
Andy Sims9 February 2018

Roy Hodgson admits now is the time for Crystal Palace to prove they are not a one-man team.

The Eagles head to Everton on Saturday without winger Wilfried Zaha, who faces around a month on the sidelines with a knee injury.

If Palace are to stay away from the relegation zone they need to overturn a damning statistic - they have not won a match without Zaha since September 2016.

But Palace boss Hodgson insists the absence of their talisman will not affect the rest of the squad's mentality.

"It won't because we don't look at those kind of statistics," he said. "Sometimes I'm amused by them, sometimes surprised, in this case dismayed.

"But it makes no difference. We go into each game believing we have the capability of winning it.

"It's an anomaly, that's for sure. But let's make certain in the next period that we put that statistic to bed."

Roy Hodgson | Crystal Palace short of attacking options

Zaha is one of nine senior players on an injury list Hodgson admits is one of the worst he has experienced in his long career.

Julian Speroni, Martin Kelly, Bakary Sako, Jeffrey Schlupp, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Scott Dann, Jason Puncheon and Connor Wickham are all on the sidelines.

"It's crucial to get Wilf back," added Hodgson.

"It's been made extra crucial by the serious injury to Bakary Sako, who is out for the rest of the season.

"We lost Sako one day before the transfer deadline, a similar player to Wilf. And then we lose Wilf, and our goalkeeper Julian Speroni, after the Newcastle game.

"This is a very serious injury crisis we're suffering from. Quite frankly, I can't remember having this many injured at my previous clubs."

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 Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

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