'Unfortunately' - Crystal Palace sweating on key man ahead of Everton FA Cup clash

Crystal Palace are sweating on the fitness of Michael Olise ahead of their FA Cup third-round clash against Everton.

The Toffees turn their attention away from the Premier League when they travel to Selhurst Park on Thursday evening. Sean Dyche's side have lost their previous three Premier League matches, most recently a 3-0 defeat by Wolves.

Everton prepare face a Palace outfit who earned a 3-1 win against Brentford last time out. Olise plundered a double for the Eagles before being forced off with an issue in the closing stages. The former France under-21 international has bagged five times for Palace in just nine matches. However, Roy Hodgson is unsure of the extent of Olise's injury heading into Everton's visit.

The Selhurst supremo said after the Brentford win: “I can’t tell you (about the severity of Olise's issue).

“I spoke to him and he didn’t seem overly concerned. I spoke with the doc and he wasn’t shaking his head to suggest that he [Olise] needed a scan tomorrow and we might have to fear the worst – he wasn’t doing that.

“We don’t know until he gets back into training and we assess it. It would be really unlucky. I don’t think it was a major snap of a muscle, but unfortunately, we’re in that period of football life where you’re playing 20 games and with three games in a week, so I’m afraid people are going to pick up muscle injuries.”

Everton earned a 3-2 victory against Palace at Selhurst Park when the two sides met in November.