Roy Hodgson has offered a pessimistic update on Dean Henderson’s injury after the Crystal Palace goalkeeper underwent a scan.
The England international moved from Manchester United to Selhurst Park in a £20million deal this summer, but was forced off early with a muscle injury while making his debut for the Eagles against his former club in Tuesday’s 3-0 Carabao Cup defeat at Old Trafford.
Palace return to the same ground on Saturday to face United in the Premier League. But while Hodgson can call on midfielder Jairo Riedewald after his injury proved to only be cramp, goalkeeper Henderson is set for a spell on the sidelines.
“He’s had a scan”, Hodgson said. “The initial scan wasn’t very positive, I’m sorry to say. He has another scan in a week’s time and maybe we’ll be lucky in that it will show somewhat less damage than the first one, but it didn’t look like good news.
“Nothing has changed since Tuesday. We haven’t recovered everybody, so pretty much the same squad that we took to Manchester on Tuesday we will be taking there tomorrow.”
Odsonne Edouard limped off during last weekend’s goalless draw with Fulham, and Hodgson explained why the French striker would miss out again against United.
“This is the first league game he’ll miss”, the 76-year-old said. “This game has come just a little bit too soon, and we can’t take the risk of reactivating his slight muscle injury and make it more than that. That’s the decision we’ve made.”
Speaking about his limited time to coach the team since Tuesday’s cup defeat, Hodgson said: “It was impossible to get back from Manchester other than by car due to an evening game, which meant the earliest anyone got home was 4 in the morning and some much later than that.
“What we’ve been able to do on Thursday and Friday is very little, but the work that we always do in terms of preparing our team has been done.”
Addressing Palace’s extensive injury list, Hodgson added: “The academy players come very much into their own, because you need a certain number in your squad to do the tactical work you would like to do. 18 is a good number.
“We don’t have 18 senior players at the moment that we can work with, so the academy players are playing a very important role in our preparation.”
