ALAN Pardew has been given a defensive headache ahead of Saturday's game with Sheffield Wednesday after discovering Jon Fortune could be out for up to six weeks.

Fortune returned from last Saturday's 0-0 draw at Nottingham Forest on crutches and the Addicks discovered today the extent of his medial ligament injury.

And with Linvoy Primus still struggling to make his Charlton debut with a knee injury, Pards knows he will be forced to play people out of position against the Owls.

He explained: "Jonathan Fortune has a medial ligament injury and will be out for between four and six weeks, but he doesn't need an operation.

"I don't think Linvoy will make it for Saturday so we are picking from Semedo, Cranie and Yassin.

"Linvoy has still got a long way to go here with his loan, it is just I feel he is not quite ready for this game due to the fact he picked up a knee injury last week.

"I suppose there is an outside chance with him for Palace."

Pardew also revealed he has yet to decide whether to hand Zheng Zhi his first start of the campaign after the Chinese star rejected a deadline day move to West Brom.

The manager said: "Zheng Zhi is back in training and fit but he is feeling his way back a little bit.

"He has got a sore foot, so I have to monitor where he is in terms of Saturday.

"I do think for Palace on Tuesday there will not be an issue, but this week I'm still having a look at him.

"He trained well today and we will see what he is like tomorrow."

The manager also confirmed both Darren Ambrose and Svetoslav Todorov are both in strong contention to return this weekend.

Charlton will attempt to get back to winning ways in SE7 against Wednesday following defeat in their last home game against Wolves, but Pardew is taking nothing for granted against Brian Laws' side.

He explained: "I feel they are a threat, there is no doubt about that.

"Certainly we need to be on the front foot against them and take the game to them, which is what we intend to do.

"I expect them to play 4-5-1 and try and keep it tight.

"It will be down to us to make sure we break through and then try and get them to come out at us and go on and win the game."

Pardew added: "I like the wide player Jermaine Johnson, the Dutch lad Etienne Esajas looks a good player and obviously Marcus Tudgay has always been a good player.

"They carry a good offensive threat and I think there will be goals on Saturday, as there have been at all our games.

"I think we've had more goals at our ground than any other so maybe a few fans might come back."

Pardew was also happy to scotch a couple of rumours doing the rounds on the web.

Firstly he denied any interest in Leyton Orient midfielder Jason Demetriou with a one word reply of "no", and then poured cold water on the suggestion Phil Parkinson was on his way back to manage Colchester.

"In all honesty I said to Phil he needs to make sure he is here next year and doing the job, so I don't think there is any chance of him going there," said Pards.

However, the manager did confirm Stuart Fleetwood was getting ever closer to leaving the club temporarily.

Pardew said: "There is an opportunity Stuart Fleetwood might go out on loan.

"I just think he is in such great form that I need to see him scoring goals at a higher level before I can put my hat on him in this team, so it might be worth putting him out this week.

"We've already had a couple of approaches."