Friday 14 December 2018 17:45, UK
Roy Hodgson believes Crystal Palace's "curse" of being unable to win without Wilfried Zaha must lift sooner or later.
Palace entertain Leicester on Saturday, but will have to do so minus influential forward Zaha.
Hodgson's side have not won a fixture without Zaha since September 2016, a run stretching back 13 games, all of which have ended in defeats.
However, Hodgson believes Palace must now finally address the issue and show they can win without the Ivory Coast international.
"All curses have to be lifted in some ways, there's only one way we can lift the curse and that's if we win the game," he said. "So we have another opportunity.
"It is a fact and it will be a fact and I'll have to consistently answer the question until such time we play a game with him unable to play and we win."
When asked whether the statistic played on the mind of his players, Hodgson conceded footballers do not live in a bubble and are aware of the situation.
"It depends how much they read and take in, as far as we're concerned it doesn't get mentioned," Hodgson added.
"If Wilf's playing we work on the team with him in, if not then we train other ways. We don't live in a bubble, so we do see it. I can't sit here and say it makes no difference to us and has no affect on us.
"The one thing you can always do if you're given the chance to put on the shirt is to go out there and play a fantastic game. Nobody can stop Jordan Ayew going out and scoring a hat-trick tomorrow except Leicester City."
