Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson has warned fans not to get too excited by the return of Wilfred Zaha.
The forward returned to action from the bench during the second half of Crystal Palace’s 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace at the weekend, giving the Eagles hope of escaping the drop zone.
However, speaking ahead of this weekend’s game against fellow strugglers Huddersfield, the former England boss warned fans not to expect too much too soon from the Ivory Coast international:
“Neither Wilf [Zaha] nor I can guarantee that he’s going to be able to find that level of form again,” said Hodsgon.
“I’d rather not put him under that much pressure. All we want from Wilf Zaha is the desire, the determination and the character to do what we know he can do.
“When you focus the spotlight so much on one person I think it’s very very dangerous. I’m hoping there’ll be quite a few other players who step up in these final games.
“The points tally is well-documented that we don’t get as many points when he’s not playing and don’t score as many goals so we miss in him in that respect.
“It’ll be very good to get him back on the field. He came on at half-time against Chelsea and I thought he did extremely well. We’re hoping he’ll start where he left off, hit the ground running and do the same for us again.”