CEDRIC has been ruled out of action for three weeks.

The defender limped off at Selhurst Park on Tuesday night during Saints' 2-0 win.

And speaking ahead of this weekend's FA Cup fourth-round tie against Tottenham, Ralph Hasenhuttl revealed the extent of Cedric's injury.

He said: “We played on Tuesday and had a few injuries in this game, so first we must have a look and see who is available.

“Cedric is out for maybe three weeks with a knee ligament injury and Jannik is also out with concussion with the elbow he took.

“Longy has a swollen knee, so he won’t be able to play at the weekend.

“This automatically changes the starting XI, but we will have to have a look.”

Hasenhuttl decided to rest Danny Ings for the Palace match after the striker had started every top-flight game since Boxing Day.

Ings has a history of injuries and Hasenhuttl doesn't want to risk another setback to the club's most important player.

Asked whether he's tempted to leave the striker out of Saturday's side, Hasenhuttl responded: “I think we handled the rotation very well. We had an intense Christmas period.

“It’s not always easy because he always wants to play – especially when he has scored 14 Premier League goals.

“I think also the history of the other players show how important it is to give your players a rest and he just played 30 minutes on Tuesday.

“But even if you do it like this, there are no guarantees he won’t get an injury, so you need a little bit of luck and good recovery.

“Until now, we’ve had good performance without injuries and the last three Cedric, Jannik and Shane are all from contact and not muscle injuries.”

Hasenhuttl also revealed that he isn’t the type of manager who will risk a player that has even the slightest knock.

Although he admits that can depend on what his alternatives are.

He added: “When there is a slight sign of there can be something then I am a manager who immediately takes them out.

“The problem is that they know this and are always very honest with the physios because when they say something I am very keen to let them out.

“On the other side, it’s also about the alternatives I have.

“In positions sometimes, we don’t have any which means we have to play the player and that can be more of a risk.

“Especially the attacking four, they have to sprint a lot and if you do that three times in a week it’s not easy.”