Crystal Palace midfielder to miss Liverpool match – but Benteke could face his old club
BY ANDREW MCSTEEN
Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson has revealed that captain Luka Milivojevic will be missing from his final game as Crystal Palace manager on Sunday, but is hopeful that in-form striker Christian Benteke will be fit and ready to add to his tally of four goals in his last four games.
The Eagles head to Liverpool on Sunday with confirmation earlier in the week that the experienced manager was stepping down at the end of the season.
“Luka’s family situation is still very important for him we won’t be able to see him,” said Hodgson about the Serbian midfielder, who also missed Aston Villa last Sunday and Arsenal on Wednesday for the same reasons.
“James McArthur is actually back now in the first elements of training; the warm up and the little bit of passing he might do, but he’s not taking part in the larger, more intensive exercises.
“Tomorrow is going to be a crucial morning for us where we literally take a roll call and we find out ‘which of you is in a state to play the game and which of you is not in a state to play the game’, and that will also involve checking on the knocks from the other night because, remember, Christian Benteke came off with a knock.
“We’ve really got to find out what the situation is. We’re not good at three games in a week. We have players which have suffered a lot of injuries so we don’t find it easy to play with a very short recovery period. I’m really I’m hoping it will be better than I fear it might be at the moment but until tomorrow, I just don’t know.”
Hodgson also admitted that defender Mamadou Sakho and forward Conor Wickham are still missing due to long-term injuries, with the pair out of contract this summer and both expected to depart the South London club.
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