Wilfried Zaha returns to Crystal Palace from Ivory Coast international duty amid injury fears

Wilfried Zaha has returned to Crystal Palace from international duty with the Ivory Coast after suffering an injury in last week’s win over Huddersfield.

The Palace winger had been due to feature in The Elephants’ international friendlies against Togo and Moldova in Beauvais, France, over the coming days but will now return to south London for assessment on his injury.

Palace have not won a game without their talismanic attacker since September 2016 and have scored just three goals in nine games, all of them defeats, without Zaha this season.

Speaking after the 2-0 win over Huddersfield, which Zaha limped out of early, Palace manager Roy Hodgson insisted that the 25-year-old had only suffered a “couple of knocks” rather than a recurrence of the knee injury that has sidelined him on two occasions this season.

Zaha is not the only key player to return to Beckenham ahead of schedule, with Alexander Sorloth having dropped out of Norway’s international fixtures with a hamstring injury.