Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner has confirmed star striker Jean-Philippe Mateta will miss tomorrow’s game against the Blues at Selhurst Park.

Twelve-goal top scorer Mateta, 27, required 25 stitches to his ear after a horror challenge by Millwall keeper Liam Roberts during last weekend’s 3-1 FA Cup victory over the Lions. The Championship side’s keeper was dismissed following a VAR review.

“Mateta is doing well,” Glasner said at his pre-match press conference. “He is at home and his recovery is going well. He had no fractures or concussion. Healing from the huge wound is going as we expected.

"He will go to Marbella with us next week and be just training individually. If everything goes how we wish, he will be available versus Fulham [after the March international break].

“We lost JP in this game – we can’t play him tomorrow – but it’s not too bad.”

Quizzed on his players’ thoughts regarding the challenge, Roberts catching Mateta with a boot to the head as he sought to clear a ball played down the middle, the Austrian said: “To be honest, it wasn’t a big topic here in the training ground.

“The players had two days off [after the Millwall game] and, of course, everybody was in touch with JP and messaging him and I think everybody could see how he is.

“The evening after the Millwall game, it was announced all’s fine with him and everybody knows he is doing well, and he will be back soon. We started on Tuesday focusing on Ipswich.

“JP’s mother came over from France and she took care of him, so he’s in the best hands! He has great support at home. He will go with us to Marbella and will be in good hands again and he will start training with us.”

Following Saturday’s match, the Eagles won’t have a game for three weeks: “It's for several weeks [before a competitive game], now that we can’t play Newcastle.

“Then we can’t train for 10 days because many players go to their international games.

“We have two games [this month], Ipswich and then Fulham in the FA Cup, and I told the players I felt it a little bit after this three-game week [against Fulham, Aston Villa and Millwall]: three wins and with all the emotions of the Millwall game, with the injury, and then two days off it felt like a little bit [taking a breath] for everyone, me as well.

“Now it’s important for us to find the focus. We have Ipswich tomorrow and we need to perform at our best to beat them, and the players showed this week in training they have a lot of confidence to beat them.”

Palace will also be without midfielder Will Hughes, who is banned having amassed 10 bookings, while centre-half Chadi Riad and midfielder Cheick Doucoure remain long-term absentees.

TWTD

BerksBlue15 added 16:06 - Mar 7 Roberts now banned for six games for the high boot. At least it gives some comfort Cunha will be out for a long, long, long time if six games is the benchmark for bad behaviour.
2

baldman added 16:12 - Mar 7 As much as I don't like seeing injuries like that and hopefully he recovers quickly but good he misses us
3

ArnieM added 16:24 - Mar 7 Bit of a red herring this tbh. Palace have the plenty of other players likely to cause us some distress amongst our defenders, I fear.
1

Suffolkboy added 16:27 - Mar 7 Seems a little harsh ; need Referees much more ‘positive’ in observing and guiding player behaviour right from the start of all games , super fit they might be ,intelligent they are ,but totally in control and decently measured in their approach consistently they are not . It’s difficult to objectively equate this punishment with the lack of action against Jordan Pickford who totally recklessly injured VVD who then missed many many games ! We ought to expect much much better ,and Managers should set an example by their own attitudes etc. COYB

0

ArnieM added 16:28 - Mar 7 Cunha should be banned for the rest of the season. A 2nd red card in just a few weeks apart, and the latest one wasn't just violent conduct on another player, it was out and out GBH. He should have the book thrown at him, but of course he won't because the authorities are gutless and corrupt as hell.
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Bert added 18:34 - Mar 7 Of course Cunha should have a lengthy ban and probably will but where is the evidence of corruption ? Just because we may feel that the authorities are too lenient does not equate to corruption.
1

Blue_Heath added 19:29 - Mar 7 Sad we are reduced to being reliant on other teams players being out/banned. No doubt Eddie 'can't hit a barn door' Nketiah will get a brace tomorrow though.
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Dissboyitfc added 19:49 - Mar 7 Blue-heath we only got auto promotion in the last two seasons because we had to rely on others to mess up! I dont care how we get the points or who has the bad luck to give us the points, I'll take them however they come! As for Cunha, i suspect he will get a further game because of how he reacted (improper conduct) after the card!
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Dissboyitfc added 19:54 - Mar 7 Any team would miss their leading scorer, whilst i would not doubt the ability of their remaining strike force, Sar aside who is on 6, the rest all added together have just about scored more than Mateta! Big miss for them!
1

MVBlue added 20:00 - Mar 7 Its our time, Mateta kicking the Ipswich corner flag after scoring is a bad memory
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