May 14 2013

Glenn Murray

Crystal Palace hotshot GLENN MURRAY faces a minimum of six months out with a knee ligament injury.

The division's top striker was stretchered off in Palace's first leg semi-final play-off match against Brighton on Friday night after turning his knee.

An MRI scan has revealed he torn his cruciate and the 29-year-old will now have surgery in the coming days, meaning he is likely to miss the first half of next season at least.

"His cruciate has torn right the way through - I think it has separated," chairman Steve Parish told the Croydon Advertiser. "His cartilage, he's got problems with that as well, so it's a pretty bad one.

"He will go in for the operation either this week or next week and it depends on the swelling. If the swelling goes down this week, the quicker we can get it done and the quicker we can get him back.

"He's just got a lot of work to do. The shortest he could be out for his six months, or it could be a year. It really depends on the complications once they go in there and have a look."