Crystal Palace are facing a defensive crisis after Mamadou Sakho was sent off inside 19 minutes on his return to the side against Bournemouth – minutes before losing Patrick van Aanholt to a suspected hamstring injury.
Sakho, who had only started twice so far this season after injury struggles, was shown a straight red after a dangerous challenge on Adam Smith, leaving Palace without a centre-back pairing for the rest of the game.
While Roy Hodgson was considering what to do next, van Aanholt – the club’s only senior left-back - added to his headache after going down with a suspected hamstring injury.
Van Aanholt was then replaced by Jeffrey Schlupp.
Gary Cahill and Scott Dann are both already sidelined through ankle injuries while Hodgson's only remaining central defender, Martin Kelly, is covering for Joel Ward until the new year after the right back suffered a serious knee injury against Liverpool.
Palace are hopefully that Cahill will return for Saturday's game at Watford though will not know the extent of Dann's injury until Wednesday at the earliest. Dann was walking on crutches and wearing a protective boot at Palace's training ground this week.
Having been so well stocked at centre-half, Hodgson now faces a very anxious wait over medical results with Sakho out for the next three.
