Sam Allardyce confirmed that Loïc Rémy will make his long-awaited debut for Crystal Palace on Saturday, four months after joining on loan from Chelsea.

The French striker, who turned 30 this week, has so far been unable to help Palace as they slipped to within in place of the relegation zone in the Premier League, having suffered a thigh injury shortly after arriving from Stamford Bridge. But he passed the first stage of his comeback by playing for Palace’s under-23 side in a match behind closed doors this week and Allardyce plans to start him alongside Fraizer Campbell in the FA Cup tie at Bolton Wanderers.

“Hopefully he will stay fit,” Allardyce said. “Of course he’ll be a little bit rusty, to say the least, as it’s his first competitive game for a long time. Hopefully he’ll work well with Fraizer Campbell in a good partnership. He won’t play all of the match because it’s like pre-season for him. He says he’s OK and ready to go but obviously he’s lacking match practice. If he can hit the form and the heights that he has hit in the Premier League before, particularly in terms of the goals and the use of his pace, then he can hopefully lift our team.”

Rémy’s return is particularly timely as Palace are depleted by a slew of other injuries on top of the departures of Wilfried Zaha and Bakary Sako to the Africa Cup of Nations. They will travel to Bolton without the strikers Christian Benteke and Connor Wickham, while Jason Puncheon, James McArthur and Scott Dann are also out.

With the goalkeepers Steve Mandanda and Wayne Hennessey also injured, the 37-year-old Julián Speroni is likely to play for the first time this season and thereby set a record for the number of appearances by a goalkeeper for Palace. Speroni has made 388 appearances in all competitions for the club, the same number as John Jackson, who kept goal for Palace between 1964 and 1973.