Crystal Palace defender Joel Ward ready to pick up where he left off after serious knee injury

For the second time this season, Joel Ward is ready to re-establish himself as a key part of the Crystal Palace backline and fill the void left by Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

Ward started the campaign as the club’s only senior right-back and with a point to prove after Wan-Bissaka joined Manchester United for £50million last summer.

Wan-Bissaka had taken his place in the team in 2018, but the former Portsmouth man fitted straight back in and made an impressive start to the season.

Ward was one of Palace’s most consistent performers and played every minute in the Premier League until hamstring and knee injuries hit in November.

The 30-year-old was out two months and his absence has exposed Palace’s failure to sign a replacement for Wan-Bissaka, with Martin Kelly having to play out of position to cover.

Palace want to bring in two new full-backs this month and have targeted Tottenham’s Kyle Walker-Peters and Joakim Maehle of Belgian club Genk.

But fit-again Ward, who returned to action in the final minutes of Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Manchester City, is ready to pick up where he left off and help Palace continue their good season under Roy Hodgson.

He hopes to start against Southampton on Tuesday night and said: “All I want to do is play football and before the injury things were going well, I want to continue and get back to that.”

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