CRYSTAL Palace have been dealt two major injury blows after defender Chadi Riad and midfielder Cheick Doucoure were ruled out for the rest of the season.
Riad has ruptured his cruciate ligament and Doucoure needs an operation on his knee.
In further bad news, Eberechi Eze will miss Sunday’s Premier League clash with Manchester United at Old Trafford.
“Unfortunately, we had several pieces of bad news at the beginning of the week, boss Oliver Glasner said. “Cheick needs surgery on his knee, and Chadi has ruptured his ACL. We have lost both for the rest of the season – and Chadi even longer. We hope Cheick will return for pre-season next season. So it’s two long-term injuries.”
“[Eze]’s struggled the last weeks and months. He got a knock in the cup [against Arsenal] and since then he’s always had pain, training and not training, playing and then taking him off. We want to get him pain-free.”
There was better news on Adam Wharton and Matheus Franca.
Glasner said: “Adam and Franca trained the whole week without any issues, and we’re thinking both will be in the squad. It will also lift their confidence and mood after being out for several weeks.
“We are all looking forward to [Wharton] staying now and training with us. We still have up to 20 games until the end of the season and we know he’s a great player in midfield.”
Glasner added: “We planned two signings. One was Romain Esse, we are still working on the second one. I’m pretty confident we will get this deal done.”
