April 20 2001

Fan Zhiyi

Chinese defender FAN ZHIYI could earn an early return from his international call up if his country does well in their World Cup qualifier against the Maldives.

FAN ZHIYI played his last game for the Eagles this season on Monday against Bolton Wanderers but it has been reported that he could be allowed to return to Palace early.

Reports suggest that the Chinese Football Association and China head coach Bora Milutinovic jointly decided that ZHIYI may return to Selhurst Park to help the club in it's fight against relegation, only if the Chinese team perform well in their first World Cup qualifier against the Maldives on Sunday.

Meanwhile, defender Dean Austin has admitted that the club could well go into the final game of the season against Stockport County needing points to avoid relegation.

Austin said: "The prospect of going to Stockport on the last day of the season looking for points is grim, but that's what I think it'll come down to now.

"Our destiny is in our own hands - but we've been saying that for weeks now and we're still down there.

"We've got four cup finals to play now. Ideally we won't be looking at results or fixtures around us."