Ex-Crystal Palace forward hopes for quick Benteke return as Ayew struggles to score

Former Crystal Palace forward Ian Wright says Jordan Ayew is not enthused about scoring hence they should hope Christian Benteke recovers quickly from injury to help solve their goalscoring woes.

Benteke underwent a knee surgery in September and is expected to return in January.

In the absence of the big Belgian forward, the Eagles have struggled to hit the target as Jordan Ayew and Alexander Sorloth have been in pale shadows of themselves.

Roy Hodgson's men have largely relied up Wilfred Zaha and Luka Milivojevic to dig them out of trouble as Ayew and Sorloth continue to struggle in front of goal.

"They can create chances with Wilf [Zaha] and with Andros [Townsend], especially when they're playing well, and then you're hoping that the luck that he's had in front of goal will change," Wright told 90.min

"But then you look at Sorloth, he looks like somebody who's going to struggle to score goals at this level. You've got Jordan Ayew, who looks like someone who just doesn't look enthused to try and do well as I thought he would coming in on loan.

"You look at it [scoring chart] and you feel it's going to be a struggle to find those goals and that's a worry because you're not talking about a lot of goals in the team as a whole. You're not seeing centre-halves scoring, not too many midfielders apart from Milivojevic with penalties," he added.

Ayew is likely to remain on the bench when Burnley visit Selhurst Park this weekend. He joined Palace on loan from Swansea City in August with an option to make the deal permanent.