5 days ago
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Crystal Palace will be without four players when it faces Liverpool this weekend as the race for the season’s first silverware begins with the Community Shield.
Liverpool is chasing its first Community Shield in three years and will face last season’s FA Cup winners at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Under Arne Slot’s leadership, the Reds stormed to the Premier League title in his debut season at Anfield, finishing a commanding 10 points clear at the top.
Meanwhile, Oliver Glasner’s Crystal Palace etched their name in history when Eberechi Eze’s strike sealed a 1-0 win over Manchester City in the FA Cup final — the club’s first major trophy. This weekend’s clash will be Palace’s maiden appearance in the prestigious curtain-raiser, a fixture that has been a staple of the football calendar for nearly 120 years.
Speaking to the media ahead of the game, Glasner confirmed that Palace will be be without four players. He confirmed that Eddie Nketiah and Cheick Doucouré will be sidelined for several months, while Caleb Kporha and Matheus França will also miss Sunday’s game.
The Eagles manager said: “It is no secret Eddie Nketiah missed more or less the whole pre-season, because on the second day at the start of pre-season, he had a small injury, and now he has a more serious injury and will be out for what looks like eight weeks. Then, without any pre-season, I think it will take him three or four more weeks to be ready. Caleb Kporha has problems with his back and is not able to train and has been out the whole pre-season – we don’t know when he will return. Matheus França is unfortunately injured again, so he's out. He missed the whole pre-season.
"Cheick had a setback – we don’t know when he will return. He’s still not able to train, his knee's reacting, so especially for him – he’s such a lovely guy – it’s tough, where he’s not in the training and playing rhythm, coming in every single day and working the gym, working rehab, and then you get a bad reaction in your knee again. He gets all our support – but he won’t be back for the next couple of months.
“The positive side is the 15 or 16 players who played most of the minutes last year are still here. The group know how we want to play and have started at a completely different level compared to last season. The basics are there, it’s now just to get back into the rhythm and activate everything in their minds. Of course, they could switch off [over the summer] and it was necessary for them, but we’ve started on a completely different level, with a different mindset and different standard we set last year, and this is why we can look forward to the season in a very positive way.”
Glasner also confirmed that Eze and Marc Guehi will both feature in the game despite the duo being heavily inked with a move away from South London this summer.
"He [Eze] will play on Sunday, definitely. Marc as well – Marc will captain the team" added the 50-year-old.
Liverpool also has its share of injury setbacks, with Joe Gomez missing the second leg of their Far East tour after returning to England early due to an Achilles problem — an issue that kept him out of both games against Athletic Club.
Right-back Conor Bradley was likewise absent for those fixtures, while Virgil van Dijk sat out through illness. Goalkeeper Alisson Becker also left the tour early, flying home for personal reasons.
Alisson and Van Dijk were back in training this week while Bradley and Gomez remain sidelined. Slot also confirmed that Alexis Mac Allister is in contention but not ready to play 90 minutes. “[Mac Allister] will be in the squad,” said Slot.
“He was out for two months I think, or longer because we didn’t play him in the last four games of the season. He trained with us since a week now, played 30 minutes, 45 minutes.
“So that’s not a situation where you would start a player [and] play him for 90 minutes. Starting is possible but definitely not for 90 minutes. Unfortunately [Gomez] has a minor injury at the moment but he will be back with the team very soon.”
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