January 3 2018

Scott Dann

Crystal Palace duo Scott Dann and JASON PUNCHEON will miss the rest of the campaign after suffering cruciate knee-ligament injuries against Manchester City.

Dann was stretchered off in the 20th minute of Sunday's 0-0 draw after trying to tackle City's Kevin De Bruyne on the edge of the area.

Substitute PUNCHEON also had to be carried off on a stretcher after attempting to stop De Bruyne on a City stoppage-time counter attack.

Palace manager Roy Hodgson said: "It’s very bad news. Both have cruciate knee ligament injuries – Dann has got a meniscus injury to his anterior cruciate and JASON has got a rupture in his posterior cruciate.

"Both will be seeing specialists and having operations when the swelling goes down, and we won’t see anything of those players for the rest of our season, and it’s going to be hard for them to be ready for the start of next season because it’s a serious injury.

"The game against Manchester City was a good one and a good performance and we rightly got some praise for it, but it came at a high price because we lost two of our senior players."