Hodgson acknowledges that Palace will be without their finest player against Manchester United.
Crystal Palace will be without top scorer Odsonne Edouard when they travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United in the Premier League on Saturday.
At the risk of jinxing things, Manchester United’s injured backline may now face a slightly easier challenge tomorrow afternoon.
Lisandro Martinez has been ruled out for the foreseeable future after aggravating the injury that derailed his spectacular rookie season, with Sergio Reguilon joining fellow left-backs Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia on the treatment table.
So the news that Odsonne Edouard, Crystal Palace’s standout performer in the first few weeks of the new season, will be unavailable for the visitors should only boost Erik ten Hag’s hopes of picking up consecutive league wins for the first time in 2023/24, despite a veritable avalanche of fitness issues.
Manchester United will play Crystal Palace one more.
“Unfortunately, this game has come just a little bit too soon (for Edouard),” says Hodgson to London News Online. “And we can’t risk reactivating his minor muscle injury and exacerbating it.”
“That was the necessary decision.” It’s a difficult choice to make when you need players. But I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if we threw him into this game not fully prepared, only to find him missing for several weeks because the muscle injury – which is currently manageable – suddenly becomes one of those injuries that keeps people out for up to a month.”
Palace are without their leading scorer.
Edouard has four goals in six Premier League appearances this season. He scored twice against Wolves and also scored the first goal against Aston Villa.
Jean-Philippe Mateta, who has had a promising start to the season, is expected to take Edouard’s spot at Old Trafford. Mateta made his Carabao Cup debut against Palace in Tuesday, but was thwarted by a great Andre Onana save in the second half as Ten Hag’s side ran out 3-0 winners.
