'Can hardly walk' - Crystal Palace injury nightmare continues with fresh blow ahead of Leeds United
Leeds United welcome a threadbare Crystal Palace side to Elland Road on Saturday for their final Premier League game before Christmas.
Injury issues are piling up for Leeds United’s upcoming opponents Crystal Palace with another first-team player set to miss Saturday’s Elland Road meeting.
Attacking midfielder Daichi Kamada was forced off during the second-half of Palace’s 3-0 defeat at home to Manchester City on Sunday. The Japan international received on-pitch treatment before limping off in the 67th minute, to be replaced by Will Hughes, and will not feature at Leeds this weekend.
The Eagles recently lost attacking full-back Daniel Munoz to knee surgery and while winger Ismaila Sarr returned from an ankle injury on Sunday, he will head to AFCON this week. Top-scorer Jean-Philippe Mateta is also having to have his minutes carefully managed.
“It looks like his hamstring,” Glasner said of Kamada following Sunday’s defeat. "When he landed, he over-stretched his knee, and that means the hamstring got the full stretch because he never had any muscle injury before. It was just an incident and he can hardly walk.
“It looks pretty bad. But he will have a scan tomorrow, then we will know more. I think we will lose him for a couple of weeks, but it's a chance for other players to step up.”
Glasner is running out of players available to step up, having struggled to strengthen his squad in the summer. Palace’s success in domestic cups and the Europa Conference League also means fixtures are piling up for Palace at a barely-manageable rate.
Oliver Glasner on Crystal Palace fixture chaos ahead of Leeds United
Saturday’s trip to Leeds will be Palace’s fourth game in 10 days and comes just 48 hours after they host Finnish outfit KuPS in the Conference League on Thursday. Glasner has already admitted he will not start anyone in both games this week, with another big game against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup before Christmas.
“There are many positives. Today [against City] for me it's just the result that’s disappointing, everything else I could really live very well with,” the Palace boss added. “But now it's preparing for KuPs [on Thursday] and then of course it's a little bit tricky [with Leeds on Saturday].
“Honestly, I am now 51 and I’ve never had two games within 48 hours! So we have to deal with it and we will find the best solution. And then we’ll go to Arsenal, playing on the 23rd [December], and we’ll try to win and qualify for the semi-finals in the EFL Cup.”
Leeds will be waiting to see how striker Lukas Nmecha comes through this week, having missed the last two games due to a hamstring injury picked up against Chelsea. Daniel Farke didn’t categorically rule the striker out for Sunday’s draw at Brentford, a suggestion the issue is not too serious.
Longer-term absentees Sean Longstaff and Daniel James will miss out due to hamstring tendon and calf injuries respectively. No obvious issues were picked up at the Gtech Community Stadium, with Leeds able to take a full week to rest and recover ahead of welcoming Palace to Elland Road.