Crystal Palace’s Nathan Ferguson suffers new injury setback as long-term absence is extended

BY SAM SMITH

Crystal Palace defender Nathan Ferguson has suffered another injury setback in his lengthy quest for fitness, Roy Hodgson has revealed.

The 20-year-old has not played a competitive game since January 2020, initially because of a serious knee injury he suffered when still with his former club West Bromwich Albion. There was then a separate thigh issue picked up just before Christmas.

Ferguson signed for Palace last summer on a free transfer but is yet to play. The England U20 international was meant to step up to first team training during the international break but has now had another setback while training with the club’s U23s.

Palace boss Hodgson said: “He picked up an injury in the U23s which sometimes happens unfortunately. When you’re recovering from a serious injury it is not so unusual that you pick up other injuries that are not to do with the knee, which was the major concern. These are muscle injuries.

“So, unfortunately, at the moment that is where we are. He is now rehabbing the injury he has picked up and I will have to wait and see when he is given the green light to train again.

“Then that will provoke another question as to when he is given the green light to come into full-time training – whether it be directly with the first team and the intensity that involves, or whether the sports science and medical staff will try to persuade me that the next step is for him to have another spell with the U23s. That is his age group and where the intensity is perhaps slightly more manageable.”