Crystal Palace winger Bakary Sako out for rest of season with fractured ankle
French attacker has been in sparkling form scoring six goals this season and his last strike was the winner against Burnley at Selhurst Park
CRYSTAL PALACE have suffered a major injury blow as Bakary Sako is out for the rest of the season with a fractured ankle.
Sako suffered the injury during Palace's 1-1 midweek draw at West Ham and boss Roy Hodgson confirmed the news at his press conference today.
Hodgson said: "Baky's injury is a very serious one. He's fractured his ankle and damaged ligaments around it.
"He certainly won't play again this season and may be a doubt to be fit for the start of next.
"Our injury situation is unusual, a lot of clubs can get a number of muscle injuries.
"But we're in a situation where we've lost five for the season and Benteke, Zaha, and Sakho all spent at least six weeks out earlier in the season."
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Norwegian striker Alexander Sorloth will go straight into the Palace squad replacing the injured Sako for the Newcastle game at Selhurst Park on Sunday.
Hodgson continued: "We watched Sorloth a lot. We knew what we were signing.
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"He'll need a little bit of time to adjust, he's not played competitively since November, but we have a two week break coming up where he can get his feet under the table.
The Eagles lost 1-0 at St James' Park in October .
The former England manager thinks his side are far from safety, despite being in 12th place.
Hodgson said: "Things are different from when we last met Newcastle.
"We were so far divorced from safety at that stage and now we aren't.
"It would be foolish to think our problems are at an end - we've just given ourselves a chance."