Chris Richards has offered reassurance after being stretchered off during Crystal Palace\u2019s Carabao Cup quarterfinal defeat to Arsenal. The USMNT defender\u2019s exit prompted immediate concern among Palace supporters and sparked wider unease after another national-team player was recently sidelined.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks everybody for the messages, won\u2019t be long til I\u2019m back,\u201d Richards posted on Instagram.<\/p>\n
Manager Oliver Glasner provided further detail on the injury, saying it was a knock to the foot following a stamp and that medical staff treated the area. \u201cHe had a knock on his foot, [someone] stamped on his foot and it had to be stitched,\u201d Glasner revealed. \u201cThe doctor told me it doesn\u2019t look so bad. I\u2019m always hopeful and we have to be hopeful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if he will be okay for the Tottenham game but I\u2019m still hoping he will be back for the Fulham game [on Jan. 1] because we have 16 outfield players and we can\u2019t afford to miss someone else.\u201c<\/p>\n
Palace travel into a Premier League fixture with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, but Glasner stopped short of predicting Richards\u2019 immediate return. He did signal optimism that the defender could be available when 2026 arrives next week, a timeline that, if it holds, would limit the interruption to Palace\u2019s defensive options.<\/p>\n
The developments are also significant for the USMNT. Richards is viewed as an important option in Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s squad, and his fitness matters ahead of next summer\u2019s World Cup. The young defender missed the 2022 World Cup through injury and will be eager to secure a place at the tournament in 2026.<\/p>\n
The club will monitor Richards\u2019 recovery in the coming days as medical staff assess the stitched foot and determine the exact length of his absence. For now, the message from player and coach is cautiously positive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chris Richards says he will return soon after being stretchered off in Palace’s Carabao Cup loss…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1067,465],"tags":[947,1066],"class_list":["post-5421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carabao-cup","category-crystal-palace","tag-ankle-injury","tag-carabao-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}