Crystal Palace: Oliver Glasner eyes 'creative' solution after Maxence Lacroix injury | OneFootball

Defender’s injury adds to Eagles’ growing fitness headaches

Oliver Glasner expects he will have to get “creative” with his team selection after Maxence Lacroix went off injured against Zrinjski Mostar.

Speaking at full-time, Glasner could not yet offer a firm diagnosis, but seemed to suggest the issue was serious.

“I don’t know the level,” he told TNT Sport, asked how severe the Frenchman’s injury was.

He continued, bemoaning the state of Palace’s fixture schedule and the lack of depth in his squad.

Maxence Lacroix is a fixture in Oliver Glasner’s defence

REUTERS

“Hopefully, [Lacroix’s injury] is not too bad, because Chadi Riad cramped at the end. He just came back from a more than one-year injury, and is playing maybe in three days again, and then four days and then three days and four days.

“[Jefferson] Lerma is out, so [Tyrick] Mitchell is maybe an option, so we have to be very creative to find the right players for these positions.”

Asked what went wrong for Palace in the match, he again pointed the finger at injuries in the squad, adding that individual errors also proved costly.

“We just made two easy mistakes. You see all the opportunities, it wasn’t always the overload, but we can’t defend one-v-one.

“That is what I said before the game, we need to get our defence sorted.

“Then Maxence gets injured, Jeff Lerma is injured, we play with a 19-year-old (Jaydee Canvot), a 21-year-old who was injured for 18 months (Riad) and then Chris Richards.

“We see they are not in the best rhythm. We are always making changes. We need to be very self-critical today.

“We controlled the game, like against Burnley (3-2 defeat), but we gave away the momentum with easy mistakes.”