Crystal Palace boss reveals injury issues with duo as they fail to last distance at Anfield

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

Roy Hodgson has spoken about the physical limitations of James Tomkins and Cheikhou Kouyate after Crystal Palace’s 2-0 loss at Liverpool.

Centre-back Tomkins, 32, left the field in the 57th minute having played his first full 90 minutes since January earlier this week, while Kouyate, 31, left the action late on at Anfield.

“I’m afraid his body just told him at half-time and in the early part of the second half ‘I can’t take it anymore’,” said Hodgson about Tomkins.

“Quite simply, he was out for four or five months and hardly played for us this season and we’ve missed him almost throughout the [whole] season.

“That’s saying something because we think he’s such a good centre-half, he makes us so much better when he plays, but now we’re asking him to play three matches in a week and those matches aren’t exactly easy matches – Villa, then Arsenal and then Liverpool away.

“Cheikhou was a little bit the same. It was just a question that he’s worked so hard. I don’t think that it’s going to be a long-term injury with either of them [and that] they’ll both be up and running soon.

“James has got time now until next season but for Cheikhou it’s a bit worse, he’s got to go to play international matches for Senegal, but I don’t believe it’s going to be major.”

In his very first game in charge, against Southampton in September 2017, the Croydon-born Hodgson was without Wilfried Zaha, Mamadou Sakho and Connor Wickham, while Tomkins was on the bench following a tentative injury recovery.

And both Sakho and Wickham repeated that today, missing from the squad today with long-term injuries, along with Nathan Ferguson and the recently-added Eberechi Eze.

In addition, Michy Batshuayi and Christian Benteke were ruled out before the match along with Luka Milivojevic and James McArthur.

Batshuayi returns to parent club Chelsea after a disappointing season-long loan ended.

“Michy had a back problem,” said the former England manager about the Belgian international, who scored just twice this season for the Eagles. “He didn’t feel it was going to be good enough for him to take part in the game so that’s one we just had to swallow, in a way the same as [how] we’ve been very unlucky with Luka and his family situation not being available. [And we’re] extremely unlucky that Christian Benteke, after the game on Wednesday, didn’t recover from the slight problem he had in his calf.”