Crystal Palace manager George Burley has admitted Andy Dorman has struggled to get used to Championship football.

The Welsh international joined Crystal Palace on a free transfer from St Mirren in the summer and either started or came off the bench in the first 17 games.

However, he was left out of the team completely for the wins against Watford and Coventry City and Burley has challenged him to recapture his form.

"Andy Dorman is not injured," he confirmed.

"He is in the first team squad but has not been in the starting squad of late.

"He has come from Scotland and has not found it easy as it is a different type of football.

"You have got to work hard and if you lose a bit of form people go ahead of you."

Dorman's fall down the order has coincided with the return to fitness of star men Darren Ambrose and Neil Danns, as well as the re-emergence of Alassane N'Diaye who seemed out of favour at the start of the campaign.

On Ambrose, Burley said: "Darren is still not 100 per cent fit but thankfully we have no mid-week game this week so that will help.

"There's no doubt him and Neil coming back has boosted the squad, he is a goalscorer."

Adam Barrett has not trained since suffering concussion last week while Claude Davis is still suffering with the flu virus that forced him off on Saturday.

Sean Scannell has returned to training and will take part in a training ground friendly next week as he looks to work on his fitness after missing the entire start of the season.