Injuries and suspensions to key players are threatening to stall Palace's bid to join the pack of clubs leading the Premiership promotion hunt.

With Palace well set to climb the league with games in hand over all of their Division 1 rivals but facing vital away days at Grimsby this weekend and West Bromwich next week, El Tel is paying a heavy price for the Eagles' 4-1 thumping over Norwich and bad tempered 3-2 victory over Wolves.

New Boy Matt Svensson is the most serious casualty, the 24 year-old Swedish front man facing a lengthy lay off after fracturing an ankle in the Wolves game. Signed just three weeks ago from Austrian outfit FC Tyrol for £100,000, the loss of the bustling striker after just two games is a bitter blow for Venables. The Swede helped Venables' Portsmouth side to a historic FA Cup quarter final victory over Leeds two years ago and has already scored for Palace since the pair renewed their partnership, netting in the Selhurst Norwich rout.

Joining Svensson on the sidelines and compounding Venables' selection headache is fans' favourite Sasa Curic. The Yugoslav international is likely to be out for at least three weeks after picking up a thigh strain against Wolves. He won't be lonely in the treatment room. El Tel is also facing life, for the short term at least, without Australian Nicky Rizzo although the blow is not unexpected. "Nicky had a problem going into the Wolves game and we thought about pulling him off at half time but he decided to carry on," said the Palace boss after revealing that the youngster was lucky to have started at all in the mid-week victory over the West Midlanders.

With so many injury worries it isn't surprising that El Tel joined Bradford boss Paul Jewell in backing the referee's decision to abandon Saturday's clash at half time after the both sets of players had splashed around for 45 minutes in West Yorkshire, risking serious injury in the treacherous conditions. "The referee made the right decision, " said Venables."It is better to be safe than sorry in conditions like Saturday's where players can be a bit reckless. I have seen it before and you can get into injury situations."

El Tel was still happy with his side's performance before their early return home. He added : "It was like a lake out there but we still got the ball down and played football."

The Eagles took an 8th minute lead on Saturday when a mistake by Bradford left-back Wayne Jacobs was snapped up by Clinton Morrison and the youngster poked the ball home. Unfortunately, for the 19-year-old who has emerged from Palace's youth ranks, his first league goal won't count after the abandonment and he'll have to look elsewhere to open his league account after scoring against Bury in the Cup.

It emerged yesterday (Tuesday) that Saturday's match has also has further complicated the Palace boss's current selection headaches.

Despite the abandonment, league officials have revealed that the yellow card picked up by Chinese defender Sun Jihai will still stand, bringing him a step closer to suspension.

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