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Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson will not take charge of the club’s clash with Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon. The 76-year-old has fallen ill and did not travel to Villa Park.<\/p>\n
A Crystal Palace statement reads: “Unfortunately Roy Hodgson was taken unwell earlier today and is not at Villa Park.<\/p>\n
“Roy is in contact with Paddy McCarthy, who will take the team today assisted by Ray Lewington. Roy sent his best wishes to the team ahead of the match. We send our very best wishes to Roy.”<\/p>\n
High-flying Palace head into their fifth match of the Premier League campaign sitting in seventh place with two wins and one draw. Hodgson has turned the club’s fortunes around since returning to Selhurst Park in March.<\/p>\n
The experienced manager is wary of the threats that Unai Emery’s Villa pose. Ahead of the match, Hodgson said: “[It will be] a severe one. They\u2019re good. They were good last season. They finished seventh and got into European competition for the first time in a long while, a great achievement.<\/p>\n
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“They\u2019ve started this season well also and strengthened their team with two or three really important signings which has made them even stronger.<\/p>\n
“Like so many other Premier League teams we meet, they\u2019re there to be not only respected but feared because of what they\u2019re capable of doing, so one has to prepare one\u2019s own team as best as one can so that nothing they do is going to catch us completely by surprise, but we still have to deal with the quality of their players.”<\/p>\n
And he opened up on how the international break has affected his preparations, adding: “We\u2019ve seen next to nothing of the international players this time because, of course, the England game was on a Tuesday night, so they only came back, the ones with England, on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorse still, some of the players who played in Africa and America and South America came back even later than that, but so not alone in that situation so it\u2019s not a complaint, it\u2019s just a statement of fact.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve had two good weeks, really, with the players we\u2019ve had here. They\u2019ve worked very hard and we\u2019re happy with the training we\u2019ve been able to do. Our situation isn\u2019t really different to the bulk of the other Premier League teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s had to accept where players who don\u2019t always get in the first-team straight away have had the chance to poke their head above the parapet and show what they can do, so in that respect, it\u2019s been good.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been nice if Marc [Gu\u00e9hi] and Jefferson [Lerma] hadn\u2019t had to miss this game and could declare themselves available, but we\u2019re still happy with the team we\u2019re putting out and the two weeks\u2019 work we\u2019ve been able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n