Roy Hodgson has confirmed that the Crystal Palace defender will miss the rest of the Christmas period, as reported by football.london.
What’s the story?
The 32-year-old had to pull out of the Newcastle United match due to an injury that he had sustained during training beforehand.
It has now been confirmed that he will be unable to play across the festive fixtures as he recovers from the calf issue.
Watch Crystal Palace Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below
Speaking about the centre-back, Hodgson said: “That was really unfortunate [in Friday’s training session]. We were counting on him and he had trained all week after the Brighton game. Unfortunately, it was his calf muscle, and he had to have a scan and he’s now going to be out for a period of time.
“I’m hoping it’s not a big strain on his muscle but we will be without him over the rest of the Christmas period.”
A big blow
This will be a definite blow for Palace, considering there are plenty of other injuries within the squad, with Gary Cahill, Joel Ward, Jeffrey Schlupp and Jairo Riedewald all having issues of their own.
The absentees in defence meant that Cheikhou Kouyate had to fill in at the back, and although he did well, it is still a concerning sign that Hodgson is beginning to need to deploy some of his players out of position.
In terms of Dann, this will be seen as another blow in what has already been a frustrating campaign for the veteran.
He has only managed four starts and one substitute appearance in the Premier League, in which he has averaged 0.8 interceptions, 3.8 clearances and 0.2 blocks per game.
This will be seen as an unfortunate turn of events for both the club and player in an important period.
Can you score at least 80% on this Ultimate Premier League Quiz? Test your knowledge now…
In other news, the absence of one Palace player against Newcastle is a damning indictment of his role at Palace.