Jean-Philippe Mateta: Crystal Palace offer furious update after sickening head injury | OneFootball

Crystal Palace have confirmed striker Jean-Philippe Mateta is conscious in hospital after being stretchered out of Saturday's victory over Millwall with a head injury.

Just nine minutes into the FA Cup clash, Mateta went racing through on goal but was clattered by the onrushing goalkeeper Liam Roberts, who was shown a straight red card after catching Mateta in the head with a high boot.

There was an atmosphere of concern and tension for the remainder of the game, which ended in a comfortable 3-1 victory for Palace. After the game, manager Oliver Glasner offered an update on Mateta's condition.

"He is conscious and in hospital," Glasner said. "His ear looks terrible and it's a very serious injury. We hope all the best for him. Let's see.

"I didn't want to see it, but we have to talk about it and I just watched it. It's terrible. I'm sure that the goalkeeper didn't want to injure JP - no player wants this. If you go to the ball like this with the intensity of the foot at this height, you just can't do it. It's so dangerous. I don't want to blame him but it was a terrible foul."

Palace owner Steve Parish had some harsh words for Roberts in his own assessment of the incident.

Mateta required lengthy treatment on the pitch / Crystal Pix/MB Media/GettyImages

"There's a lot of emotion in footy but we need to talk about that challenge," Parish said. "In all my time in football, I've never seen a challenge like it. I look to see how old is the keeper is, he's 30 years old.

"That is the most reckless challenge on a football pitch that I think I've ever seen and he needs to have a long hard look at himself, that lad, because he's endangering a fellow professional - and maybe even his life with a challenge like that.

"So it's very difficult for me to talk about the rest of the game because we're worried about JP and it's just a terrible, terrible challenge. They're all professionals and they have to treat each other like professionals and have a duty of care and that goalkeeper hasn't had one.

"And credit to the players for carrying on but it's difficult for me to think about anything with JP in hospital. And in all my time in football, it's a dreadful challenge and why the ref needed to go to the screen I've got no idea.

"He's a human being, let's forget about a football player. That's just not a challenge. If you're kicking someone in the head with full force like that, God knows what damage he's done to him."

In defence of Roberts, Millwall manager Alex Neil offered his support to the goalkeeper when asked for his own view.

"I don't think it's meant," Neil said. "I don't think there's any intent, of course not. Why would there be any intent? It's the start of the game. The ball gets put in behind and he's just trying to get there. I certainly wouldn't label it the worst challenge I've seen."