Crystal Palace ‘must make do’ amid defensive injury crisis

Crystal Palace must “make the most” of the players available after suffering a devastating defensive injury crisis, according to midfielder Luka Milivojevic.

Sam Allardyce’s men face a relegation six-pointer against Hull this Saturday, knowing a victory would guarantee survival.

The Eagles have been without first-choice centre-backs Scott Dann, Mamadou Sakho and James Tomkins in recent weeks – a crisis which has been compounded by three straight defeats to Tottenham, Burnley and Manchester City.

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But Milivojevic, who has been attempting to shield a makeshift backline, believes his side must make the most of the squad available.

“We missed a lot of important players against City but there’s nothing we can do about the injuries,” said the Serbian.

“We must make the most of what we have and do our best for the club to make sure we stay in the Premier League.”

The south London side were drubbed 5-0 at the Etihad last weekend, a result which has left them just four points clear of the relegation zone.

“This was a disappointing performance but we will try to improve next week against Hull which is obviously a massive game in our season,” Milivojevic said.

“You have to remain solid when you visit places like Manchester City and we gave ourselves too much to do after conceding goals so early in each half.

“I still don’t think we deserved to lose 5-0. At 1-0, Christian was very unlucky not to equalise with his header and that could have changed the game. But their second goal killed our momentum.

“We were not conserving energy for the Hull game in the second half and the last two goals were too easy from our perspective.”