ROY Hodgson has revealed Cheick Doucoure could potentially be ruled out for the rest of the campaign.
The midfielder left the field on a stretcher early in the second-half after going to ground during last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at Luton Town.
It wasn’t clear at the time how serious the problem was but the boss confirmed the unwanted news this lunchtime that no Crystal Palace fan wanted to hear.
Hodgson said: “It’s bad. He’s snapped his Achilles tendon, so it’s a question of how long that takes.
“It could take as long as the end of the season, but of course one remains optimistic.
“He’s young and a quick healer, so I don’t think it necessarily has to be that amount of time, but we know it’s a long-term injury and we’ll miss him.
“It’s a massive blow, especially seeing as in his position we don’t have as much cover as we do in some other positions, so to lose him is a real blow in the game.
“To turn out to be such a serious injury which will deprive of his services for such a long period of time is something we’re going to have to come to terms with and find a way around.”
Another player who was forced off injured at Kenilworth Road was Eberechi Eze, who is currently visiting a surgeon to determine whether he needs to go under the knife.
Hodgson said: “We should know more after he’s seen the surgeon again today.
“He saw the surgeon at the start of the week and had his ankle put in a boot because it’s a ligament problem. He’s going to see him again today.
“It’s a high ankle ligament which apparently is not quite as serious as it could be when you get a bad ligament injury lower down, but it’s still a considerable injury.
“We’re waiting on the advice from the surgeon again today to find out how long it will take before he gets back.
“It’s a real blow in a way that, at Luton, we had what we considered to be perhaps our strongest available team there for us for the first time in a long time, and by the time the second-half had just started, we were missing two of them again.”
