Sunday 31 December 2017 17:52, UK
Roy Hodgson says Crystal Palace will discuss the idea of signing a new centre-back in January after losing Scott Dann to a "serious" knee injury.
Dann was stretchered off after 20 minutes of the Eagles' goalless draw with Premier League leaders Manchester City on New Year's Eve.
Hodgson insists a new central defender has not been on the agenda but, with Mamadou Sakho already out with a serious injury of his own, Palace are down to three fit centre-halves in James Tomkins, Martin Kelly and Damien Delaney.
"At the moment, we haven't been thinking along those terms," he said. "We aren't a club that has unlimited resources at our disposal, to just jump out and buy another player whenever one goes down. That's not where or who we are.
"We think that with James Tomkins, Sakho, Dann, Damien Delaney and Martin Kelly, that hasn't been our major area of weakness. The subject of signing another centre-back has never come up because we weren't expecting Sakho and Dann to be out for long periods of time.
"But who knows now? There will be discussions. Football is an ever revolving subject. What you think is good in your team at one time suddenly a moment in time changes it all.
"We are massively stretched at the back, not just at the moment but going forward. The doctors are loathed to make any bold statements but it doesn't look good (for Dann). It's a serious knee injury.
"Sakho has been out for a month now and is likely to be out for a few more weeks to come, with a quite serious injury. Joel Ward is still recovering and there's no sign of him recovering in the next few days, that's for sure."
Ahead of the transfer window re-opening on New Year's Day, Hodgson also denied reports that loanee Timothy Fosu-Mensah, who impressed as Palace halted City's record winning streak, could be sent back to Manchester United.
"I don't know yet. I know nothing about that. We're happy with Fosu-Mensah so I don't know where that story has come from, to be honest," the ex-England boss said.
"I'm afraid that we've stretched our resources to the absolute limit, that's why it was nice to see three players that have not had many chances in Jairo Reidewald, Patrick van Aanholt and Fosu-Mensah come in and do as well as they did."
