Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi is on crutches with a foot injury, but he should be fit for their League Cup quarter-final against Arsenal after avoiding a fracture.
Marc Guehi left the field of play injured after Crystal Palace’s midweek win over AZ Alkmaar last Thursday, and despite initial assessments not seeming so bad, the progression of the injury overnight led to fears of a possible foot fracture.
Confirmation of such an injury would have been relevant to Arsenal, with Palace facing the Gunners in the League Cup quarter-finals next month. Foot fractures generally leave players out of action for six to eight weeks, and the Arsenal game is six weeks away.
But Oliver Glasner confirmed that scans have revealed good news for the defender, and it appears the player only has a painful bone bruise.
“Marc has a heavy bone bruise from the kick he got against Alkmaar in the 93rd minute,” Glasner confirmed on Sunday.
“It didn’t look so bad, but during the night, he couldn’t sleep the whole night and was in huge pain. We made a scan as we had really huge concerns that he has a fracture. Fortunately he has not, but it’s a heavy bone bruise, it’s swollen, he can’t walk, he’s on crutches.
“When you have a bruise, you never know how long it takes. Of course, I hope and he hopes and we all hope that he will be back after the international break, but at the moment he can’t step on his foot.”
Guehi missed Palace’s draw with Brighton over the weekend, and the expectation is that he might also have to miss England’s internationals over the November break.
That would probably be the preferred option for the player, with England already having qualified for the World Cup. The games over the November break are effectively meaningless to Thomas Tuchel’s side, so to play through the pain wouldn’t be particularly appealing.
But it looks like Palace now hope to have Guehi back in action by the time they travel to Wolves on November 22nd, a month before their game against Arsenal.