Roy Hodgson Reveals Palace Have 12 Injured First Team Players Ahead of Sunday's Clash With Spurs

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has revealed that no fewer than 12 of his first team squad are missing ahead of Sunday's Premier League clash with Tottenham.

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has revealed that no fewer than 12 of his first team squad are missing ahead of Sunday's Premier League clash with Tottenham.

The Eagles, who are just a point above the relegation zone having failed to win in their last four league games, were hoping to have Mamadou Sakho and Martin Kelly available for the home clash with Spurs - but it now appears that both are not quite back to full fitness. 

Clive Mason/GettyImages

Wilfried Zaha is their most notable absentee, but as Hodgson revealed on Friday - via Sky Sports - he's far from alone on the treatment table: "What I have in mind, quite frankly, is that day when I have a full Palace squad to choose from - the same sort of squad I was choosing from in the months of October and November - I'm looking forward to that day.

"At the moment, as far as I'm concerned, it's a question of trying to get through the games until I can feel that I have a team that perhaps is a little bit more relative or a bit more of a Palace team that we had a couple of months ago. At the moment, we're missing that enormously.

"The changes are quite drastic. No-one is back and more are gone. I have to take a list these days of players otherwise I forget them. There are 12 senior players injured.

"It's a very, very different team for me at the moment and, in terms of getting players back, the only two that we will get back within the next week or two are [Jeffrey] Schlupp and [Martin] Kelly. Possibly [Joel] Ward and possibly [Mamadou] Sakho too, but the others are still long term and we'll have to wait possibly until after the international break."

Hodgson went on to admit that his side were well and truly embroiled in a relegation battle which is tighter than it's ever been in the Premier League. Just six points separates 19th placed Stoke City from 10th placed Bournemouth, and Palace themselves sit in 15th on 27 points.

The former England boss added: "It feels like a relegation battle, because that's what it is. We're all aware that from one game to the next you can change positions and get closer to the middle of the table, or get closer to the bottom of the table.

"I think that, in the 11 games that we have still to play, there's still going to be quite a lot of twists and turns and people going up ladders and down snakes because that's the nature of the league at this moment in time."