Crystal Palace have been hit by a heavy injury blow to Wilfried Zaha.

Zaha, Palace's talisman, was forced off just before the hour mark of his side's 2-1 win at Newcastle United on Tuesday, and Hodgson admits he has a heavy hamstring injury.

“If we want to get into the top half we have to recover some of these injured players because otherwise it is going to be a tough ask," said Hodgson on Friday.

“We don't know how long Wilf's going to be out. He won't be available this weekend and it could even be much longer than that.

"And I'm afraid we haven't had good news on the players we already have out injured either. We're scratching around a little bit.

“Wilf is incredible in terms of recovery so I wouldn't like to put a definite timeline on it but it is a muscle strain and they take time to heal.

“There's no doubt we will miss him because he is a very important part of our attacking play."