Cahill has not played since being kicked in the recent match with Brighton & Hove Albion, but Hodgson confirmed the centre-back is well enough to compete, saying: "He got back in and then got that serious injury when he was kicked in the latter part of the Brighton game.
"He made a quicker recovery than any of us thought he would be able to and was actually in training before we played Fulham. But I decided to not thrust him into that game and then I chose to keep faith in Scott Dann and Cheikhou Kouyate who’d done so well."
Turning his attention to Ayew, Hodgson confidently confirmed the frontman is "good" following his return from isolation and then praised his attacking options, adding: "We’re fortunate, we’ve got four very different types of forward if we count Wilf [Zaha] as a forward.
"They all have different qualities and they’re all capable of playing with each other... If you’re going to have four forwards vying for a place in the team it’s good they all have different qualities."
Finally, Hodgson discussed those players he is without before taking on Leeds United at Selhurst:
"We’ve got three long-term injuries which I mention every week: Connor Wickham, Wayne Hennessey and Nathan Ferguson. Unavailable players are Joel Ward, Tyrick Mitchell and unfortunately James Tomkins, who was training with us last week, had a slight recurrence so he’s out as well."
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