Crystal Palace: What next for Jean-Philippe Mateta after his Deadline Day disaster? | OneFootball

Striker is now left fearing for his fitness and World Cup hopes, as Eagles count the financial cost

Jean-Philippe Mateta’s dream Deadline Day move has turned into a nightmare for all involved.

The striker has made no bones about his desire to leave Crystal Palace over the last year or so, but will now return to the club’s training ground with his tail between his legs after a £30million move to AC Milan collapsed.

Standard Sport reported in December that Mateta had been playing through pain, with both player and club hoping that surgery was not required. At the same time, Palace full-back Daniel Munoz did go under the knife for a similar issue, and only recently returned to match fitness.

Milan made every effort to sign off on the deal but eventually pulled the plug. Aged 28, Mateta is an investment in the now, and Milan could not justify a significant outlay on a player whose fitness was under serious question.

Amid the uncertainty over Mateta, Crystal Palace pushed on and wrapped up a £48m club-record deal for his replacement: Jorgen Strand Larsen from Wolves.

Mateta now faces an uncertain and quite possibly unpleasant remainder of the season.

Palace have a new main man to their lead line, which leaves Mateta - the Premier League’s biggest underperformer on the expected goals front - with a battle on his hands when, or if, he gets back to full fitness.

Surgery may now be back on the table for Mateta, but any restricted minutes will hand his hopes of making France’s squad for the summer World Cup a significant blow.

Palace will also be counting the financial cost.

Having reduced their asking price down from £40m to facilitate a January exit for Mateta, any leverage Palace had in negotiations will have evaporated come the summer as the striker enters the final year of his contract.

Could he properly reintegrate with the Palace team? Perhaps, in time. But he may need to convince some of his team-mates of his commitment first.

He needs to get back fit, and then back in the team, and then back scoring. This is the only path for him now, for the good of the player and club.