Acimovic injury blow hits Hoddle

Adrian Curtis13 April 2012

Milenko Acimovic will today undergo a scan to determine the full extent of the hamstring injury that forced him to limp out of last night's 4-0 over at Crystal Palace.

Acimovic's injury in the pre-season friendly at Selhurst Park is the latest setback for manager Glenn Hoddle, who now expects Gus Poyet to be out of action for at least three months.

Poyet will miss the start of the season after sustaining a knee ligament injury in the game against Gillingham on Saturday.

Hoddle said: "Losing Milenko is the last thing I want. But this is the horrible problem with close-season games. You have to play the games to get match practice but you can get injuries.

"We took Milenko off quickly to give him some protection. Hopefully his injury will not be long term but losing Gus is a blow for us.

"He won't start the season and his comeback-is not going to be this side of three months."

The good news for Hoddle was the potential shown by Chinese triallist Qu Bo.

A double strike from Steffen Iversen, a header from Simon Davies and a penalty from Darren Anderton left an ordinary Palace side well beaten but striker Bo took the plaudits with a fine display after coming on as a second half substitute.

Hoddle, who missed out on landing Brazilian star Rivaldo, was suitably impressed as the 21-year-old set up set up the goals for Davies and Iversen and won the penalty which Anderton converted.

But Hoddle is aware that 33 minutes is not enough to make a final judgement on the player who wants to be nicknamed 'Kevin'.

"That's what he wants to be called. I don't know why. He's come over and adjusted very well. He has come in smiling from day one and earned the respect of the players," said Hoddle.

"It was a fantastic cross for Simon's goal and we'll be looking closely at him. However, a pre-season game is one thing, the Premiership is another. There is a big difference and he has got to show us what he can do against better opposition."

Meanwhile, Hoddle revealed that Rivaldo sent the club a letter of thanks which also outlined the reasons why he opted for Milan instead of north London.

He added: "Milan pushed the money up to extortionate degrees. Up until that point he was coming here and we were pipped at the post.

"He sent us a terrific letter explaining why he didn't come and I've never known that to happen before when you have just missed out on a player.

"It was a touch of class from him. It was a nice letter saying he would have come but at the last moment Milan proved to be the place where he wanted to be. They made him an offer he could not refuse."

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