Oliver Glasner is facing an injury crisis with Eddie Nketiah the latest Crystal Palace player to be ruled out of action.
Nketiah sustained a hamstring problem during the 2-2 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday and will miss out against Fulham, leaving Palace with a dilemma in how to replace him.
“Eddie played the last two games,” Glasner said. “At Aston Villa He was the guy who was sprinting most on the pitch, he played 83 minutes. It was my mistake and my fault that I didn’t substitute him earlier in the Wolves game.
“In the Wolves and the Tottenham games we were the No 1 in high intensity runs in the Premier League over three days. I should have subbed him a little bit earlier. He felt something in his hamstring during the (Wolves) game but he was fighting for the team until almost the end of the game and now he has problems with his hamstring.”
The Palace boss dismissed reports that the injury occurred away from the club’s scheduled training session, saying he had been assured by the 25-year-old that was not the case.
“I heard about it and I talked to him. He mentioned after the game he felt his hamstring a little bit. Then he had a scan and it was more serious than we expected. I always trust my players, why should I trust a strange source more than my player? I talked to Eddie and it’s fine.”
Given the continued absence of Eberechi Eze, Jefferson Lerma, Matheus Franca through injury and Adam Wharton who last week had surgery on a long-standing groin injury, leaves Palace painfully short in both midfield and the No 10 positions.
Will Hughes is suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season in the 2-2 draw with Wolves on Saturday.
As a result, they have only two available senior centre-midfielders in Cheick Doucoure and Jeffrey Schlupp, with Daichi Kamada and Ismaila Sarr likely to feature as No 10s.
But Doucoure is only now returning from a significant lay-off after injuring his toe in September’s 2-2 draw with Leicester City and having played minimal minutes since rupturing his achilles in the 2-1 defeat by Luton Town last November.
In defence, Chadi Riad remains out with a ruptured achilles sustained in the Carabao Cup second round win over Norwich City but is expected to return after the international break, but Chris Richards and Joel Ward return to the squad after injury.
Glasner refused to be downbeat about his options, preferring to see it as an opportunity for those on the fringes of the squad and in the academy to push their case for inclusion.
“You can see the glass half empty or half full,” he said. “Any manager wants all his players fit and available. But it’s also a chance for other players to step up and show we can work as a team. Our team did excellent over the last week with a very tight schedule — with three games in six days. We had two subs at Villa in the Carabao Cup and also got the win there, before going to Wolves.
“I mentioned before the Wolves press conference it’s time to step up and we scored two goals from set plays with two defenders. This is what we could have done better in the first games. It’s about the team performance.
“Yes I would like to have everyone available but especially in this phase of the year, when I look at the schedule in December and January it’s a challenge for every club. But we have a squad of 20 on field players and youngsters from the academy. We will have a very competitive squad against Fulham.”
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