JEAN-PHILIPPE MATETA will be donning a water polo-style protective headband on his Crystal Palace return on Saturday.
And Eagles boss Oliver Glasner has insisted: “If I didn’t believe he was ready, I wouldn’t play him.”;
French striker Mateta is set to start Palace’s FA Cup quarter-final clash at Fulham – his first appearance since requiring 25 stitches in his ear after being hit with a dangerous kung-fu kick by Millwall keeper Liam Roberts in the fifth round on March 1.
After trialling three different versions, Mateta has been training over the international break in his FA-approved protective head guard – including in a behind-closed-doors match – which has been jovially mocked by Glasner and the Palace squad.
Glasner explained: “It’s like a water polo helmet. In water polo it’s so they don’t get water into their ears, he has it just on one side. It sounds crazy, but we are used to it.
“I said to him maybe you should try [water polo] because he’s tall enough.
“It looks a bit strange but he says he feels comfortable so let’s see.
“When he scores a header, then it was the right mask and the right protection.
“Our doctor and the team did a great job finding the right protection. Everything is approved by the FA.
“There were three different ones. He tried one like you use to ride a motorbike but he couldn’t train with this because it was too heavy.
“I said to the doctor I remember Petr Cech wearing a helmet but the ear was free so we needed the full helmet. Then we found the right one.
“He tried in training which one fits him best and doesn’t influence him in the wrong way.
“If I believed it was a problem, I wouldn’t play him but it looks like it isn’t a problem.
“The last 10 days he's had this protection and he did well in training so I didn't find a reason to talk about this.”;
Asked whether there is a risk Mateta may not be the same player because of it, Glasner continued: “I watched him in training, he looks the same as he did before.
“He needed to get back into his rhythm because he couldn’t really train for two weeks.
“One week he was at home, the second he was training individually.
“It’s also lucky that in this situation nothing was fractured and there was no concussion, it was just the ear although it was a terrible injury.
“Some players say that the ear looks better than before!”;
Palace defender Chris Richards – who once played with a protective mask after breaking his nose while in Germany – added: “It can be restricting but I think he'll be fine.
“[Mateta] enjoys the attention. He’s got that bionic ear now. He looks like a wrestler.
“With the headband, we were also saying he looks like the American tennis player Francis Tiafoe.”
On if he has given Mateta any advice, Richards laughed: “No, no. He won’t listen to me anyway.”;
