Alan Pardew has admitted his frustration at Crystal Palace’s injury woes ahead of the club’s Premier League trip to Watford on Sunday.

The 54-year-old has been forced to operate without Scott Dann, Damien Delaney, Marouane Chamakh, Mile Jedinak, Joel Ward and Connor Wickham in recent weeks.

Summer signing Wickham has been absent for over a month and Pardew confirmed the striker would not feature in his starting eleven at Vicarage Road.

“Connor definitely won’t start and Chamakh, they’re the only two who definitely won’t start,” Pardew said.

“We’re waiting for news on one or two.

“We’ve been hurt with injuries in the last couple of weeks, but you get them periods in any season and the squad has to kick in.

“That’s what we’ll have to ask of them on Sunday if we’re missing one or two.

“I don’t think we have too many long-term injuries which is fortunate so I think we can rectify it pretty quickly.

“Julian Speroni has missed pre-season and I’m a little bit concerned that he hasn’t had much game time, we’ll look at some internal games for him.”

The former Newcastle boss also praised Palace’s start to the season, suggesting that challenging for a Europa League spot is not beyond the club.

Despite already facing Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City, the south London side have picked up a commendable nine points and currently sit 8th in the league.

“I don’t think anyone had six more difficult games than us,” Pardew added.

“To get nine points from that was good, and it could have been even better.

“We’re not getting carried away with our ambitions.

“We think we can challenge for a Europa League spot if we can have a good first half of the season.”

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