Crystal Palace defender Gary Cahill expected to miss rest of Premier League season

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson expects Gary Cahill to miss the remainder of the season after the centre-back came off in the 3-2 defeat to his former club Chelsea tonight.

The Blues’ opening goal came when the defender pulled up with a hamstring injury and Willian raced on to square for Olivier Giroud to net.

“’He’s obviously felt that his hamstring gave way, so he’ll be assessed, and he’ll receive a scan, but I’d be very surprised if there isn’t a tear in the muscle,” said Hodgson.

“I’d be even more surprised with such a short period of time to play this season now, if he gets back to be part of the four matches we’ve got left.

“It would have been asking a lot [for Chelsea not to carry on their attack]. People react instinctively – you find yourself behind the defence in a really good position to create a goal chance and you carry on and take it. It would have been unrealistic for me to suggest they suddenly put their foot on the ball and stopped and run straight to Gary and see how he was.

“That’s not the way football is, but it was certainly a very unfortunate incident which happened so early in the game. At the end, it cost us a point because that was the goal they won by. They won by one goal and that was it.”