Crystal Palace handed double injury boost as Eberechi Eze returns to squad | OneFootball

Eagles face Newcastle ahead of big week for Oliver Glasner

Eberechi Eze and Eddie Nketiah are set to return to Crystal Palace's matchday squad for Saturday's Premier League home clash with Newcastle.

Boss Oliver Glasner said at his pre-match press conference on Friday: "Ebere will be in the squad tomorrow, and Eddie Nketiah as well.

"They worked pretty hard in their rehab, and also the medical staff did an amazing job, so that's why they are available earlier than expected."

Palace have what Glasner has described as a "very intense week" ahead of them, facing Ipswich away three days after the Newcastle match and then Manchester City at home another four days on from that.

And he said: "I know Ebere can't play all three games over 90 minutes.

"It's good that he is back, and the same with Eddie. We have to manage the minutes they get, but it's good just to have the opportunity when you need it."

Palace are second-bottom of the table with eight points from their 12 matches so far.

Oliver Glasner is looking for a big improvement at Crystal Palace

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They have won only one of those, at the ninth attempt, and the three outings since then have been two draws, 2-2 at Wolves and Aston Villa, either side of a 2-0 home loss to Fulham.

Glasner said: "We know we are not happy with being 19th in the table. This is the truth. Having eight points after 12 games, it's not that we can say: 'It's fine, it's a good position.'

"I think, yes, the performances are getting better and better, but the output is still not good enough.

"If we score two goals at Villa, if we score two goals at Wolves, at least in one of those games, we should have taken the win, but we conceded too many goals. We conceded three times in a row two goals, so this is what we have to improve.

"But on the other side, yes, we can see that with the players getting back, we have more opportunities and how we want to play gets clearer and clearer for most of the guys.

"Many players are in a better physical shape than when they started - I mentioned it quite often, with pre-season and the late arrival.

"So we have many signs giving us confidence, but on the other side, we have to accept and respect especially the situation in the table, and that is not good."

Palace face a Newcastle side lying 10th with 18 points from their 12 games.

Additional reporting from Reuters