Roy Hodgson has confirmed that Christian Benteke is now available for selection for Crystal Palace.
Roy Hodgson said “Christian Benteke has been training all of this week so that’s someone I could count on of course for the game. One or two others have started to make an appearance but it’s a very brief appearance – not much beyond the warmup and any non-contact passing work. I enjoy [competition for places] from the club’s point of view and players’ point of view. “Because there’s no doubt players need that edge on keeping their standard to the high level that’s required. Competition for places is good for everyone at the football club and certainly as the manager. We’ve long since come away from believing football is an 11-man game, especially during lockdown when we were getting used to it being a 16-man game. The quality of your bench becomes of vital importance. We’ve been able to bring in players to bring in competition to our attacking phase of play. In Eberechi Eze and Michy Batshuayi we have players to score and make goals.”
