Roy Hodgson is under serious pressure as Crystal Palace manager (Picture: Getty Images)
Crystal Palace not only suffered a heavy loss to rivals Brighton on Saturday, but Michael Olise suffered another injury, Marc Guehi went off injured and Eberechi Eze remains out with a hamstring problem.
The Eagles were soundly beaten 4-1 by the Seagulls at the Amex with Lewis Dunk, Jack Hinshelwood and Facundo Buonanotte all scoring within 34 minutes.
Jean-Philippe Mateta did give Palace some consolation, but Joao Pedro completed the scoring on an excellent afternoon for the home side.
It as anything but that for Roy Hodgson as Guehi went off in the first half with a knee problem, while Olise was brough on at half-time and had to be taken off just nine minutes later.
Olise was taken off during the midweek win over Sheffield United as a precaution for muscle fatigue, but things are now much worse for the winger.
‘Very, very disappointing,’ said Hodgson. ‘With hindsight I know people will say at 3-0 down why bring him on, we brought him on because we had the green light from the medical people that he was able to play the second half. They told us to put him on the bench and not start him.
‘When you have one of your best players on the bench, he is there and everyone thinks if he is ready to play half a game, you want to take advantage of that. It would have been tough to say “stay sitting there”.
Michael Olise lasted nine minutes of Crystal Palace’s defeat to Brighton (Picture: Getty Images)
‘There’s no crystal ball. If someone had said “if you put him on, he will pull a muscle” then we wouldn’t have done so.’
Eze was also taken off against the Blades and wasn’t in the squad for the trip to Brighton.
Hodgson says the extent of the injury is not actually as bad as first thought, but the England international will be out for a spell.
‘We think that the damage is not quite as bad as we feared it might be, but it still could be bad,’ said Hodgson.
‘He faces a spell on the sidelines – there is no doubt about that.’
The extent of Guehi’s injury is not clear, but the Eagles boss will hope to have him back for the visit of Chelsea on 12 February.
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