Joe Cole is in contention for the Crystal Palace game on New Years Day. Cole came off against Palace at Selhurst Park in early December with a hamstring injury. But he returned to training this week ahead of the return game at Villa Park on Thursday. Nathan Baker [knee] looks set to return to training later this week too. The centre-half hasnt figured since coming off at West Ham in early November. Ashley Westwood [knee] is scheduled to be return to training next Monday. He came off against Leicester at the start of December and hasnt been involved since. Paul Lambert will assess Tom Cleverley and Ciaran Clark in the next few days ahead of the Palace encounter. Cleverley came off against Sunderland with a bruised foot while Clark was withdrawn with a bad back. Lambert said Libor Kozak [leg] and Philippe Senderos [calf] were still a while away from being back. He said: The lads are doing alright. Westwood is doing really well. And so is Baker. Hes coming on well. Ashley is doing well. Hes doing great. He wont be far off. He might train on Monday, which is good. Nathan will hopefully train by the end of the week. Philippe is still a good bit away. Joe trained so hes back in the fray. I need to see how Ciaran is over the next few days. Libor is still away. His bone is knitting together which is a good thing. Hes still a good bit away. Tom has had a bruised foot for a while but there was fatigue in him too against Sunderland. We will see how he does over the next few days but hopefully he will be alright.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 19:07:16 +0000