Crystal Palace will be without their captain and leading scorer, Scott Dann, until after October’s international window, after a scan revealed he had suffered a slight hamstring strain.
Dann, who has scored three times this season, pulled up after experiencing discomfort in a thigh after only 18 minutes of his 100th appearance for Palace in their midweek EFL Cup defeat at Southampton. He was scanned back at the club’s Beckenham base on Thursday and, while the prognosis is relatively positive, he will now miss Saturday’s trip to Sunderland and, most likely, next Friday’s game at Everton.
Dann’s absence will further scupper any lingering hopes he had of breaking into Sam Allardyce’s England set up for the World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Slovenia after his impressive start to the season. Dann has been one of the more consistent English centre-halves in the top flight over recent seasons but has never been called up to the national side.
James Tomkins, whose full Premier League debut for the club last Sunday yielded a goal and his withdrawal at half-time with a slight knee injury, is fit enough to return and he will partner the stand-in captain, Damien Delaney, at centre-half. “Scott Dann has a slight strain in his hamstring,” said Alan Pardew. “He will definitely miss this game, and possibly Everton as well. He’s our captain so, of course, it’s very frustrating to be without him.
“But we paid an awful lot of money for James Tomkins because I wanted to make sure we had cover in that position. Last year I felt a bit vulnerable there. So I don’t feel vulnerable now on Saturday. James is fit and will come in. That’s why we invested heavily in him over the summer. He’ll fit in seamlessly into that centre-half position at Sunderland and put in a performance that will match that of Scott Dann.”
