CRYSTAL Palace are pulling out all the stops to prevent a virus spreading through the camp ahead of this month’s crucial Carling Cup semi-final double header with Cardiff.

The Eagles were without skipper Paddy McCarthy and inspirational keeper Julian Speroni in yesterday’s 2-1 home defeat by Leicester.

And with a potential Wembley trip up for grabs, manager Dougie Freedman is leaving nothing to chance as he bids to prevent anyone else in his squad falling victim to the bug.

The SE25 chief said: “Julian Speroni and Paddy McCarthy have both got it.

“We have the doctor on call, telling the rest of them to take as many vitamins as they can.

“I am concerned.

“When you lose your keeper, who is the best in the division, and then your captain you are going to be concerned.

“I am going to give the lads a few days off so they can stay away from each other.

“Hopefully that will kill it.

“We need to take it seriously because two of our influential players have been struck with it.”

Crystal Palace were subjected to only their second home loss of the season when they were beaten 2-1 by Leicester on Monday.

The hosts started much the brighter but it was the Foxes who struck first after Lewis Price’s clearance inexplicably hit Glenn Murray and rebounded into the path of Neil Danns, who shot expertly past the Welsh stopper on his first return to Selhurst since his summer switch.

And the Eagles were perhaps unlucky again to find themselves 2-0 down when a seemingly fair tackle from Dekel Keinan was deemed a foul by referee James Linnington.

The resulting free kick was flicked on by David Nugent and stabbed home at the far post by Soul Bamba.

Jonathan Parr struck back for Palace with an audacious curling effort just before the break, setting up a second half onslaught on Leicester’s goal.

But despite wave after wave of Palace attacks and a late red card for Leicester’s Steve Howard for foul and abusive language, an equaliser proved elusive.

Freedman said: “It’s not all about dominating possession, I feel as though you’ve also got to create chances and we didn’t quite do that today.

“We kept on trying, we kept on at it and we asked them a lot of questions but we didn’t quite use it as well as I think we could have.

“But I thought the performance throughout the game was outstanding.

“We’ve got a great bunch of lads and they are disappointed, but they gave it everything they had and I can’t ask any more than that.”

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