da brwin： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Injury News series, which considers the impact of the latest updates on players’ fitness.
da roleta： Crystal Palace travel to Burnley this Saturday in what will be the first game since their tough run of fixtures came to an end.
The Eagles have faced Manchester City, Arsenal, Leicester, Chelsea and Liverpool over the last few weeks, coming away from that run with just a single point to their name.
However, they do not face a side from the so-called ‘big six’ until January 11 when they welcome Arsenal to Selhurst Park.
However, the team news ahead of the game against Sean Dyche’s men could see a rarely-seen figure summoned.
What’s the situation?
Roy Hodgson is currently without his only right-back Joel Ward following a clash of knees in the Liverpool game, so Martin Kelly – who has operated predominantly at centre-back this term – will have to fill in.
In addition to this, Mamadou Sakho has only just returned to the field, albeit the U23 pitch, with Hodgson confirming that the former PSG man needs to rebuild his match fitness first before coming back into contention.
To make the situation worse, The Evening Standard report that Gary Cahill is a doubt for the game.
What does this mean?
Well, with both Sakho and Ward unlikely to feature, Kelly having to move to right-back and Cahill potentially missing, Hodgson has just one centre-back in James Tomkins to choose from – along with another rarely-seen man.
Scott Dann.
The former Blackburn centre-back hasn’t started a Premier League game since the 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United on the August 18, losing his place almost immediately after Cahill had gotten up to speed.
Sadly, the 32-year-old also only started seven league games last season having lost his place to Sakho and Tomkins, following a severe knee injury against Manchester City back in 2017 that ruled him out for over a year.
He has been forced to watch from the sidelines again as Cahill performs impressively alongside each of Kelly, Sakho and Tomkins at different times, but it now looks like Dann could potentially be summoned in Hodgson’s time of need.
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