Palace boss Hodgson admits Franca ready for Newcastle

Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson admits Matheus Franca could make his debut tomorrow against Newcastle United.

However, the manager is keen to ease expectations around the Brazilian.

"He's not injured. He's a candidate, yeah," confirmed Hodgson. "Training is training. We need to see him in games. We have to get him into either the first team, knock someone off their perch and get into the team or in the substitutes, or watch him in an Under-21s game.

"As far as we're concerned, all we've seen is the highlights of his matches with Flamengo. We still wait to see the evidence of him in a team environment, but in training he's fine, he does the right thing.

"He's been extremely good in picking up the language so quickly and being able to understand all the things we're asking

"His English has improved quicker than I thought, than I was entitled to expect. He's obviously quite bright.

"When we train he understands the exercises and information we're giving him and now it's a question of when he gets his chance to get on the field of play and show how good he is, he'll have to take that chance.

"People shouldn't forget he's 19 years of age. In a week or two, he won't suddenly become Lionel Messi, that's not how it works, but as a 19-year-old he's making good progress, as are David Ozoh and Jes Rak-Sakyi."