Crystal Palace hope Jean-Philippe Mateta will not have to undergo surgery on the knee injury that he has been struggling with his recent weeks.
The striker has been playing through pain and Palace are managing his minutes.
Mateta was withdrawn after 63 minutes during last weekend’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City and is expected to be rested against KuPS in the Conference League tonight.
Daniel Munoz underwent surgery on his knee injury and has been ruled out until next year.
But Palace hope Mateta can recover without an operation.
Oliver Glasner is set to ring the changes against Finnish side KuPS, with the Palace boss stating that none of the players who start tonight will start against Leeds this weekend.
Several academy players, including 15-year-old goalkeeper Lucca Benetton, have trained with the first team this week as Glasner looks to keep his squad fresh ahead of a run of three games in five days.
Palace’s squad is being stretched increasingly thin, with Daichi Kamada ruled out for up to eight weeks with a hamstring issue and Ismaila Sarr travelling to the Africa Cup of Nations.
Glasner, whose contract expires in the summer, has called on the club to bring in more attacking reinforcements in the January transfer window.
But the Austrian reiterated in his pre-match press conference that his contract negotiations would not become a distraction as Palace look to fight on multiple fronts this season.
"There's no time," Glasner said. "Believe me, I'm never thinking about my future right at the moment. It's not important right now.
"I know there are so many rumours. But I don't know how many clubs I managed in the last three months, and I'm still sitting here. As soon as we will take a decision, number one, the players will hear it, and, number two, [the media] will hear it."
