Crystal Palace attacker set for late fitness call ahead of Manchester City

Roy Hodgson has confirmed that Eberechi Eze will travel with the Crystal Palace squad ahead of their Premier League clash at Manchester City – but the Greenwich-born attacker faces a late fitness call.

The 25-year-old suffered ankle ligament damage in the 2-1 defeat at Luton Town and has missed the last three outings.

Eze has three goal contributions in 10 Premier League appearances to his name this season and missed a period of the campaign with a hamstring injury.

“Every day with him, the situation changes,” explained Hodgson

“He’s in a much better place much quicker than we thought he would be.

“We haven’t made a decision yet if he will start the game, but we have made the decision that he will be with us.

“We will make a decision tomorrow, having also assessed what he did in training today and how he felt after training.”

Dean Henderson is also in line to make his Premier League debut for the Eagles at The Etihad.

The 26-year-old summer signing has only just returned from a quad injury he suffered in the 3-0 EFL Cup defeat at Manchester United earlier in the season.

Sam Johnstone is out of the game tomorrow [Saturday] with a tight calf.

“He wants to play,” said Hodgson.

“I say ‘obliged’ as in an ideal scenario, it would have been nice to have kept him back working so he could strengthen his quad before we could say: ‘Now you’re playing.’

“But Dean considers himself fit enough to play and can’t wait.

“That’s a positive in that respect. We’re fortunate that when we lose a goalkeeper of Sam Johnstone’s quality, you have one with Dean Henderson’s quality to bring into the team.

“He had that chance against Manchester United, and a very bad injury occurred, which was devastating for him because he came here wanting to take the challenge on and put me under pressure to decide which goalkeeper I wanted to put into the team.

“It’s only now that he’s even close to being able to say: ‘You have to consider me’.

“But he’s being pushed in maybe a little bit earlier certainly than the medical department might have wanted. 

“He might be looking at the situation now where he works on the basis of thinking: ‘I haven’t been able to get the shirt because Johnstone has done so well, now I’m going to show that it’s going to be hard for Johnstone to get the shirt from me.’

“That’s good competition and I’ll have to deal with that when the time comes.”