Chadi Riad suffers suspected anterior cruciate ligament injury to spark defensive crisis at Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace defender Chadi Riad has suffered a suspected anterior cruciate ligament injury to throw Oliver Glasner’s defensive options into crisis.

Eagles boss Glasner revealed on Friday that the central defender was unavailable for the weekend loss to Brentford owing to the issue.

And Mail Sport has learned that the 21-year-old is set to miss a long period due to the serious knee injury.

The news comes as a huge blow to Palace after Chelsea took the decision earlier this month to recall Trevoh Chalobah from his season-long loan deal at Selhurst Park following the injury suffered by Wesley Fofana.

Given Glasner plays with three centre backs, the injury suffered by Riad poses a huge problem for the Eagles boss.

Marc Guehi, Maxence Lacroix and Chris Richards are the club’s only recognised centre backs who are currently fit.

Riad has only featured in three games for Palace this season due to persistent injury issues

Palace boss Oliver Glasner, who favours a 3-4-2-1 system, now only has three fit centre backs

It now looks likely that Palace will enter the market for a new centre backs who before the transfer window closes.

There are also emerging concerns that midfielder Cheick Doucoure is also facing a long spell in the sidelines with a knee issue.

In revealing Riad had suffered an injury last week, Glasner also disclosed that Doucoure was suffering with a knee complaint too.

Riad has only featured in three games for Palace this season due to persistent injury issue. His most recent outing came against Stockport in the FA Cup earlier this month.