Football
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Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha out at least a month with knee injury

Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha will miss approximately a month after injuring a knee during the draw with Newcastle United on Feb. 4, manager Roy Hodgson said on Thursday.

Zaha, who has scored four goals this season, was originally expected by the club to be out longer, but Hodgson said the winger has recovered well in the days following the injury.

"The good news is he's a very quick healer," Hodgson said at his prematch news conference. "He and the medical staff are working very hard to get him back on the field as soon as possible. He won't play at Everton on Saturday, and it may take a few weeks more than that, but we hope it won't be as long as all that."

The injury is a major blow to Palace's survival hopes, not least because they have not won a league game without him since September 2016.

"We'll take it on a match-by-match, week-by-week basis and get him back on the field as soon as we can," Hodgson said. "He's not out for the rest of the season. If he recovered in a week or two, it would be a fantastic effort from his point of view.

"We may have to wait a month or so for him, but it's not certain. All the time the possibility and chance exist to get him back, we'll do that. He'll be pushing the medical people to come back as soon as possible.''

Zaha is among a number of injured Palace players, with Bakary Sako, Jeffrey Schlupp, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Martin Kelly, Scott Dann, Jason Puncheon, Connor Wickham and Julian Speroni all battling ailments.

Deadline-day arrival Alexander Sorloth, the 6-foot-4 striker signed from Midtjylland, could be pitched in for a debut against Everton at Goodison Park.

Everton manager Sam Allardyce, speaking at his pregame news conference, said that Zaha's absence could be beneficial to them.

"We have to be concerned about Crystal Palace's strengths, particularly the front three," Allardyce said. "I think that Wilf may have a problem, so might not be playing. That may be an advantage to us."

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