Crystal Palace midfielder Cheick Doucoure could miss the rest of the season after snapping his Achilles in last weekend’s defeat at Luton.
Doucoure was carried off on a stretcher shortly after half-time at Kenilworth Road and Roy Hodgson offered a gloomy prognosis when asked about the Mali international ahead of Sunday’s trip to West Ham.
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“It’s bad,” said Hodgson. “He’s snapped his Achilles tendon, so it’s a question of how long that takes [to heal].
“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.
“To turn out to be such a serious injury, which will deprive us 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.”
There was slightly better news for Palace on attacking midfielder Ebere Eze, who was also forced off at Luton.
Hodgson said: “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 so we should know more after that.
“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.”
Hodgson is hoping the England international can avoid surgery.
“I would hope not,” when asked if he would have to go under the knife, “and think not from what I’m being told about the way the injury will potentially pan out, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to be ready to play on Sunday, that’s for sure.
“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.”
