Reason revealed behind absence of Wilfried Zaha against West Ham

Zaha absent against West Ham

Crystal Palace is set to tackle the opening weekend of 2022 without star forward Wilfried Zaha as the Eagles clash with West Ham at Selhurst Park.

I understand Wilfried Zaha and Cheikhou Kouyaté are isolating and won’t be involved against West Ham today. I suspect the Irons also have a few missing today. #CRYWHU

— Rahman osman (@iamrahmanosman) January 1, 2022

Journalist Rahman Osman tweeted earlier this morning that both Zaha and midfielder Cheikhou Kouyaté will fail to feature for Patrick Vieira’s outfit after both have entered isolation.

Presumably, the isolation period comes in the run-up to both key assets jet-setting off to AFCON which is set to begin in just a matter of days in Cameroon.

Ivory Coast named 10 forwards in the Afcon squad including Jeremy Boga, Willy Zaha, Maxwell Cornet and Seb Haller.

Reminds me of Senegal 2012. Had nine of some of the World’s best attackers in the squad. Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse, Moussa Sow, Niang etc. Didn’t win a single game

— Saddick Adams (@SaddickAdams) December 23, 2021

Zaha was expectedly included in the Ivory Coast squad set to clash with Algeria, Sierra Leone, and Equatorial Guinea in Group E, while Kouyaté was selected for joint-favorite Senegal who faces Guinea, Zimbabwe, and Malawi in Group B.

Crystal Palace enjoy comfortable first-half of 2021-22

Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira should go into 2022 quite pleased with the manner in which his Eagles have taken to him in the English capital this season after he took the reigns from the highly-respected Roy Hodgson.

LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 06: Manager Patrick Vieira and Joachim Andersen of Crystal Palace during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Wolverhampton Wanderers at Selhurst Park on November 6, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)

Thus far, Palace sits right in the middle of the Premier League table and has only tasted defeat six times from 19-matches in the league and genuinely showing improvement across all phases of play under the former iconic Arsenal midfielder.

On-loan Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher has been crucial to their efforts as has the aforementioned Wilfried Zaha, while Christian Benteke and summer signing Odsonne Édouard have both chipped in on the goal charts.

Summer signings Joachim Andersen, Marc Guehi, and Michael Olise also signal an approach by Palace to guarantee quality in the first-team ranks moving forward, and the chance to upset the apple cart against West Ham today could be the perfect start to the calendar year in Vieira’s return to the Premier League.