COLIN Hendry is at the centre of another injury scare, with fears of a lengthy absence for the Blackburn Rovers central defender.

Hendry was forced to pull out of yesterday's 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace at half time after suffering what seemed to be knee ligament damage.

And Rovers boss Roy Hodgson confirmed that the problem was with the same knee that Hendry had hurt earlier in the season.

On that occasion, he had to be substituted at Barnsley and the injury kept him out of action for five weeks.

When he returned to the first team, against Bolton, it is not just co-incidence that Rovers embarked on a run of three successive wins to put the Old Trafford defeat behind them.

Hodgson admitted there was a possibility of it being a recurrence of Hendry's earlier problem but said: "We just don't know at the moment."

It can take a few days for ligament injuries to settle down before they can be properly diagnosed.

But, coming on top of two dropped home points, it was not designed to put the manager in the best frame of mind.

And he wasn't in the mood to listen to questions about the top of the table situation, with Manchester United losing at Coventry and Rovers pulling only one point back on them. "It doesn't interest me, I am getting sick and tired of every discussion being about Manchester United," he snapped.

Hodgson, despite his frustration with the result - the first home points Rovbers have dropped in three months - handed unprecedented praise to his team after yesterday's draw.

But he was also highly critical of the Ewood pitch, claiming that Tim Flowers had been beaten by a bad bounce for Palace's second goal.

Television, however, underlined that Flowers should have done much better in his attempts to keep a soft header from Paul Warhurst at bay.

It put Palace 2-1 ahead just after half time and left Rovers facing a battle which they still could have won.

Hodgson said: "I thought we were magnificent. I thought our performance was outstanding.

"I don't think I can remember, during the whole of my career, coaching a team that has attacked as well as that consistently over 90 minutes."

In contrast to those comments, Hodgson had a swipe at Ewood groundsman Steve Patrick, claiming the last time he had seen a goal like Palace's second had been in "schoolboy football".

He refused to hand any blame to his goalkeeper, placing the guilt totally on the patch of turf in the Darwen End goalmouth where Warhurst's header bounced.

"It's very frustrating after we had to fight very hard to get our goals and come from behind twice," said Hodgson.

"We should never have been coming from behind because the second goal, which was a touch back from Warhurst to our goalkeeper, should not go in the goal."

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