Crystal Palace confirmed that striker Jean-Philippe Mateta was aware of the hospital after he won on Saturday over Millwall with head injury.
Just nine minutes of the FA Cup conflict, Mateta was running away from the goalkeeper, but was pierced by a goalkeeper who was cheering on Liam Roberts, who was shown a straight red card after grabbing Mateta in his head with a high boot.
There was an atmosphere and tension for the rest of the game, which ended with a pleasant 3-1 victory Palace. After the game, manager Oliver Glasner offered an update about Matete’s condition.
“He is aware of the hospital,” Glasner said. “His ear looks scary and it’s a very serious injury. We hope all the best for him. Let’s see.
“I didn’t want to see him, but we have to talk about it and I just watched him. It’s terrible. I’m sure the goalkeeper didn’t want to hurt JP – no player wants it. If you go to the ball this way with your foot intensity at this height, you just can’t do it. It’s so dangerous. I don’t want to blame him, but that was awful.”
The owner of Palace Steve Parish had sharp words for Roberts in his own assessment of the incident.
“There’s a lot of emotion in Footy, but we have to talk about this challenge,” the parish said. “In all my time in football, I have never seen a challenge like that. I watch how old the guard is, he is 30 years old.
“It’s the most modern challenge on the football field that I think I have ever seen and he has to look at himself for a long time, because he threatens a colleague of professional – and maybe even his life with such a challenge.
“So it is very difficult for me to talk about the rest of the game because we are worried about JP and it is just a terrible, terrible challenge. All of them are professionals and have to treat each other as professionals and have a duty to worry, and he didn’t have that goalie.
“And merit to players to continue, but it’s hard for me to think about anything with JP in the hospital. And in all my time in football, it’s a terrible challenge and why Ref was supposed to go to the screen, I have no idea.
“He is a human being, we forget the football player. It just is not a challenge. If you hit someone in your head with full power, God knows what he has done to him.”
In the defense of Roberts, manager Millwall Alex Neil supported the goalkeeper when he asked for his own view.
“I don’t think it thought,” Neil said. “I don’t think there is intention, of course not. Why would there be intention? That is the beginning of the game. The ball is put behind and he just tries to get there. I would certainly not mark him the worst challenge I saw.”
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