Roy Hodgson has revealed that Wilfried Zaha will be available for the London derby between Crystal Palace and Tottenham on Sunday afternoon.
Roy Hodgson said “Yes, he’s trained well this week, there’s no reason why I can’t consider him for a place in the team. He’s missed lots of games for us in that period of time, but he’s still come back quicker than the medical department thought might be possible because of his incredible powers of recovery. We’re really pleased to have him back, as well as Jeff Schlupp. It’s good to see him back as well, so that’s two of the important players we’ve been missing in the last five or six games back with us again.”
Zaha has missed the last five Palace games with a hamstring injury suffered in the 2-1 win away to Newcastle at the beginning of February. His presence was sorely missed in back-to-back defeats against Leeds and Burnley, as well as in the performances against Brighton and Fulham, despite picking up four points. The Ivory Coast international was not risked in the draw against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side at Selhurst Park on Wednesday night, though Hodgson did state before that game that he was hoping to be able to call upon Zaha “very, very soon”.
His return to the side will be a big boost for Palace as the club heads towards an international break, with just the fixtures against Spurs and West Brom remaining in March before a trip to face Everton in early April. Zaha’s absence from the Palace team has seen a dip in performances over the last month, with back-to-back defeats against Leeds United and Burnley seeing struggling displays from the attack, While results since then have improved, the performances in attack have remained slightly stagnant, with just two touches in the opposition box all game in the win against Brighton, and not a single shot on target at home to Fulham at the weekend. The display against Manchester United on Wednesday evening was slightly improved, but to have Zaha back will be a big boost to an attacking line that has looked slightly laboured recently.
