ROY Hodgson says Dean Henderson is “devastated” after picking up an injury on his Crystal Palace debut in Tuesday’s 3-0 Carabao Cup defeat at Manchester United.
The keeper was forced off after just 19 minutes with the game still scoreless against his former club on what was a far from ideal first Eagles start since completing a £20million switch from Old Trafford.
An initial scan didn’t reveal the seriousness of the problem so Henderson will undergo a second one next week to determine just how long he faces on the sidelines.
Hodgson said today ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League meeting with the Red Devils he is hoping the problem doesn’t turn out to be a long-term one.
But the Selhurst chief admitted his new goalkeeper is struggling to come to terms with the injury blow.
The Palace manager said: “The initial scan wasn’t very positive I’m sorry to say but he has another scan in a week’s time.
“Maybe he will be lucky and it will show somewhat less damage that we saw in the first one butit didn’t look like good news.”
Hodgson added: “He is devastated. He has been so good in training, so good in the month we’ve had with him where he has not had a chance to play.
“Obviously he was always going to play in this (cup) game, there was no question on that and he was really looking forward to it.
“So to pick up an injury in the same sort of area, not in the same place but in the same area where he has had the previous injury, is absolutely devastating for him.
“Both he and we can only hope it is not as serious as perhaps the first scan showed and he will be able to get back relatively quickly from it.
“But whatever break he has now got to take from football, whatever the length of that break, it has really come at the wrong time.
“He has come in and done very well. Everyone likes him, he has got on very well in the group, he has been excellent support to Sam (Johnstone).
“His performances in training have been excellent – everything really was building up to this game on Tuesday night.
“It was the right one for him, the perfect platform for his first game for Crystal Palace and then he gets a muscle injury so it couldn’t be worse in terms of a scenario.
“I couldn’t have written a worse scenario.”
Hodgson also confirmed striker Odsonne Edouard would miss tomorrow’s Old Trafford trip after sitting out the cup loss with a hamstring injury.
