Cheick Doucoure To Miss Mali's AFCON Campaign With Achilles Injury
Crystal Palace midfielder Cheick Doucoure is facing a long spell out of action after suffering a serious Achilles injury over the weekend.
Doucoure was stretchered off early in the second half of Palace's 2-1 defeat at Luton Town on Saturday.
Palace fear the 23-year-old Mali international has played his last game of the season as they expect him to be out for around six months.
That will effectively rule him out of the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, where Mali are in the same group with Tunisia, South Africa and Namibia.
Speaking after the Luton defeat, Palace manager Roy Hodgson said: “He’s got a bad injury. I’ll let the doctor deal with that first. It’s not going to be an injury that keeps him out for a short period of time.”
Doucoure has played 45 times in the Premier League since joining Palace from Lens last summer.
His performances earned him the club's player of the season in his debut campaign and Liverpool were credited with an interest in him this summer.
