Crystal Palace will be again without Wilfried Zaha as they take on Newcastle United on Friday, while Steve Bruce has confirmed several members of his squad are self-isolating.
Zaha, who has scored five Premier League goals already this term, tested positive for coronavirus following his return from international duty with Ivory Coast, and the forward subsequently sat out Palace's defeat to Burnley on Monday.
Hodgson has confirmed Zaha's isolation period is still ongoing, meaning the Eagles will be shorn of their star man when they host Newcastle at Selhurst Park.
"He's still got to serve out the period of isolation. That will take him I think to Saturday when he'll be tested again and we're hoping that will come back negative. He's been feeling okay, which is often the case when people test positive," Hodgson said.
"He's a very important player. It's always the case whenever you have a player who's hit the headlines for his club in the way Wilf has done for us and lots of other players you could name for other clubs in the same category, it's normal when the team plays without that player and don't get a result, everything focuses around the man who's missing.
"Of course you miss those players but you miss them playing their best football and you can't guarantee they'd be playing their best football ... We tend to endow the player who's not playing with incredible quality. But we did miss him of course and always will miss him when he's not playing because he's such a good player."
Hodgson's counterpart Bruce, meanwhile, confirmed: "Two or three individuals are self-isolating."
However, Bruce will be able to call on leading scorer Callum Wilson, who has recovered from an injury which saw him miss the defeat to Chelsea.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Crystal Palace - Andros Townsend
Townsend enjoyed an impressive, albeit short-lived, spell with Newcastle and, in the absence of Zaha, will be tasked with providing the creativity for Palace. The winger did just that against Burnley, crafting three chances and having three attempts, though only one was on target.
Newcastle United - Karl Darlow
Darlow has made more saves than any other Premier League keeper this season (41), while only Chelsea's Edouard Mendy (87.5 per cent) has a better save percentage than Darlow (72.2 per cent).
KEY OPTA FACTS
- Palace have won two of their last three Premier League meetings with Newcastle (L1), as many as they had in their first 15 games against them in the competition (W2 D5 L8).
- After winning their first four Premier League away games against Palace between 1994-2013, Newcastle are winless in their last five top-flight visits to Selhurst Park against them since (D3 L2).
- There have been just seven goals scored in the last seven Premier League meetings between Palace (three goals) and Newcastle (four), with neither side netting more than once in a match since the Eagles' 5-1 win in November 2015.
- Newcastle have lost their last two Premier League games by a 0-2 scoreline. They have not lost three in a row without scoring in the competition since January 2016.
- Bruce's side have had fewer shots (71) and fewer shots on target (21) than any other side in the Premier League so far this season. However, the Magpies have scored with a higher percentage of their shots on target than any other Premier League side this term (48 per cent - 10/21).
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