Crystal Palace midfielder Conor Gallagher needed an injection for a knee injury picked up in the build-up to the Eagles' 3-0 win over Arsenal on Monday night, football.london understands.
The 22-year-old England international played the full 90 minutes at Selhurst Park as goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta, Jordan Ayew and Wilfried Zaha earned Palace an impressive victory over the Champions League pushing Gunners. Although he didn’t get himself on the scoresheet, Gallagher was as tenacious in his off-field work as ever, winning six duels across the match and providing the free-kick that led to Mateta’s opener on 14 minutes.
This was all done despite picking up a slight knee injury in the build-up to the game and needing injections to come through it. When asked about his decision to start Gallagher and keep him on for 90 minutes, Palace boss Patrick Vieira said he and his team were happy with the midfielder’s condition ahead of kick-off and wanted his tenacity from the get-go against the Gunners.
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“We played him because he was ready to go,” said the Frenchman in his post-match press conference. “We didn’t want to take any risks but he was fine. Conor is an important player for us. Not just because of the goals he scores but also the energy he brings to the team. When he starts the pressure, everybody follows behind and this is what we want.”
Vieira also confirmed that Cheikhou Kouyate was not injured despite being seen limping back down the Selhurst Park tunnel following his 80th-minute substitution for Luka Milivojevic. The Senegal international had a busy international window helping his country qualify for the World Cup in a two-legged play-off tie against Egypt, which meant he was fatigued towards the final whistle against the Gunners.
“He’s fine,” added Vieira. “He gave everything on the field. We had a couple of guys who played international and came back and it was good that we had two days more than other teams but there was some tiredness in there. But [Cheikhou] is good.”
There was less optimism around the injury to Michael Olise however, who missed the win over Arsenal after coming back from international duty with a problem in his foot. Vieira confirmed the injury would keep Olise from appearing in Palace’s match away at Leicester on Sunday, meaning there could be a race for him to get back to full fitness ahead of the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea in a fortnight.
“We have to look at how things go day after day but it doesn’t look good for the next game,” said Vieira. When asked specifically if he would be back for the trip to Wembley he added: “We have to see. We have to live the week and see how he will improve.”
