Roy Hodgson has been given some welcome good news on the injury front after confirming that James Tomkins underwent a successful operation on an eye injury that he picked up in training before the Premier League clash against West Ham. Hodgson first revealed the injury ahead of the clash against West Ham, stating that the Wales international had suffered “an accident in training”, however it had looked as if the problem may have been more serious. Tomkins has now seen a specialist on three occasions, and Hodgson says that he had received a fracture around his eye, but there has been good news to share on the centre-back, with a positive outlook now possible.
Roy Hodgson said: “The good news is he’s had a small operation to make certain that the slight fracture he had under the eye has been taken care of”. That’s lifted the eye up as it should do and gives him more chance to close the eye, which was a slight problem at the beginning due to the fracture. So that was a successful operation, so that was really good. Obviously, it’s a nasty injury, but the good news is that he’s very positive about it all, and things are looking an awful lot brighter today with regards to James than when the injury happened.”
Tomkins has missed plenty of football for Palace in recent history, only making his comeback from injury as a substitute against Liverpool in December having missed the majority of 2020. Having earned a place back in the team, things were looking up for the centre-back, who started in back-to-back clean sheets against Sheffield United and Arsenal in January. However, the eye injury is set to keep Tomkins on the sidelines again, with Hodgson forced to deal with yet another injury problem to a defence that has been beset with issues this season.