Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner will have to wait until the start of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign to work with Cheick Doucoure while Matheus Franca has also now been sidelined until the summer

Doucoure, who caught the eye of Liverpool last summer, snapped his Achilles in November and was forced to undergo surgery immediately. Meanwhile, 20-year-old Brazilian attacking starlet Franca has had an operation to fix a groin problem, meaning his campaign is also now over.

Additionally, Glasner could also be without a number of other key stars for Sunday's clash with West Ham at Selhurst Park. The Austrian said: "We have one player that was injured at Liverpool in Jefferson Lerma, who will be out until at least the Manchester United game. Rob Holding is back, he will be in the squad after training all week with us.

"We have three question marks, Chris Richards, who trained for the first time on Friday, Joel Ward also had an issue with his groin and Will Hughes, who got a knock in training on Thursday."

Lerma is suffering with a hamstring strain after battling through the pain barrier to complete the full 90 minutes on Merseyside. His new boss added: "It was a bit unlucky - a sprint against [Mohamed] Salah. One of the 30 he had to make. He made a long step and then he felt it.

"He wanted to be substituted but we couldn't do it as it was at the end of the game. He finished the game with us and could feel it afterwards. Now we've got the results."

Cheick Doucoure won't play again for Crystal Palace again this season ( Image:

He concluded: "I think they have a lot of quality in their team, I saw the game against Bayer Leverkusen. They played an excellent first half with a lot of pressure and power but in the second half they got a bit tired.

"We expect Lucas Paqueta and Emerson to be back so they'll be fresh legs and we know they'll be fighting for three points at Selhurst but I promise we'll be doing the same."