Crystal Palace Woes Continue as Striker Christian Benteke Suffers Injury in Loss to Man City

Matters only seem to be worsening for Crystal Palace as they lost their sixth successive Premier League game to Manchester City. The Eagles were brought down once again with a 5-0 drumming from the league leaders and have failed to score a single goal while remaining firmly rooted at the bottom of the table. 

As if that wasn't enough, the London club have suffered a further set-back with the injury of key striker Christian Benteke. 

According to Sky Sports, manager Roy Hodgson confirmed that the 26-year-old Belgian suffered ligament damage in his knee during the match and had to be replaced by Bakary Sako in the 72nd minute.

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Benteke's injury means that he will certainly miss next week's clash against Manchester United as Palace travel to Old Trafford next Saturday. Speaking at his post-match press conference, Hodgson was quizzed regarding the forward's injury and stated:

"Not well, we think it's a form of ligament damage," Hodgson said when asked about Benteke's injury in his post-match press conference.

"But I don't know quite how bad that ligament damage is. He's going to have a scan tomorrow [Sunday].

"It will mean he will not be playing in the next game - I can be sure of that - which we could do without at this time."

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The Belgium international was pivotal to Palace's Premier League survival last term, having scored 17 goals in all competitions for the Eagles. With Benteke now sidelined through injury, and with Connor Wickham also a long-term injury absentee, Palace only have former non league striker Freddie Ladapo as a viable alternative. 

Wickham has also been out of action through injury for the last 10 months following his final start against Swansea back in November, while Ladapo is still yet to feature in a Premier League game. 

Hodgson surely has some work on his hands to quickly find an adequate replacement to lead the Palace attack and who can produce the goals to help keep them in the top-flight.