‘If anyone deserves a break, it’s Luke Dreher’ – Roy Hodgson speaks glowingly about Crystal Palace midfielder

BY SAM SMITH

Roy Hodgson believes Luke Dreher deserves the chance rekindle his Crystal Palace career following a two-year injury hell.

The midfielder suffered a ruptured ACL in August 2019, just months after making his long-awaited Premier League debut. He missed the whole of the 2019/20 campaign and had another setback at the beginning of this season as he stepped up his recovery.

Dreher has played in the last two U23 fixtures and Hodgson has earmarked the 22-year-old for first-team involvement soon.

The academy graduate has not been named in the Eagles’ 25-man squad so cannot feature in the Premier League this campaign. He and fellow returnee Nathan Ferguson, who is training again after his own lengthy absence, are being eased into action with the development squad.

“I’ve spent a lot of time with Luke and I’ve seen him around a lot. On two occasions he’s actually been with us in the first-team squad in the hope of really integrating and using his undoubted ability. He’s a real quality player,” Hodgson said of Dreher.

“But he’s had such a bad run of injuries and on each occasion with me, it didn’t last very long before the next injury reared its head. It’s been decided on this occasion, after another very long period of rehabilitation, that like Nathan Ferguson, rather than throw him back into the first-team mix immediately the moment people in the medical department think he’s okay to train, he’s started with the U23s.

“He’s done two weeks, he’s played minutes for the last two or three games including the (U23s’)win against Leeds, and we still have high hopes for him. If anybody deserves a break, the chance to really showcase his talents as a footballer and really give back to Crystal Palace and repay the faith we’ve had in him, it’s Luke Dreher.

“No one deserves the misfortune he’s had with injuries. He’s been incredibly strong, mentally, to get through all those injuries and still be out there as enthusiastic as he is, believing like we all do that he will get over all these injuries. He’s still a young man.

“I still believe that, if he gets back to anything like the form he was showing before these injuries, he’ll have a part to play for us. My fingers are crossed for him and I have great respect and admiration for what he’s done to get himself into the situation he finds himself in today.”