Team News: Wharton & Nketiah updates pre-Fiorentina
Oliver Glasner has confirmed that Adam Wharton will be available for the first leg of Crystal Palace’s UEFA Conference League quarter-final against ACF Fiorentina on Thursday night (20:00 BST).
The 22-year-old midfielder withdrew from England’s squad last week after picking up a minor injury in the second-half of the friendly against Uruguay at Wembley Stadium.
But speaking at his pre-match press conference, Glasner confirmed that Wharton would be fully fit for Palace’s first leg at Selhurst Park against the two-time Conference League finalists.
“He had a minor adductor issue with England but it’s all sorted,” Glasner confirmed. “He trained the whole week and is available tomorrow.
“The England team managed the minutes very well and so we are pleased that Adam also got a little bit of a break, and then started to prepare for the Fiorentina game by Sunday.”
The Manager did confirm, however, that Palace would be without Eddie Nketiah for tomorrow night’s game, the striker having been absent through injury since the Eagles faced Tottenham Hotspur on 28th December.
Glasner noted: “It’s how football is, because it looked like everybody was available for tomorrow’s until two minutes before the end of the session [today].
“Eddie unfortunately injured his hamstring again and had to leave the pitch two minutes before the end of the game. He won’t make tomorrow’s squad. He will have a scan again, but it doesn’t really look good for him.
“All the others are available. We trained, on Sunday, with 23 on-field players for the first time since the start of this season – but it is how it is.
“Of course he was very disappointed and we are really suffering with him. As a player you always think the worst thing is when you don’t play, when you don’t start, but the worst thing is when you are injured and have setbacks, and that makes it very tough for Eddie.
“He will have all our support to come back hopefully before the end of the season, but we will know more tomorrow.”
We feel ready and we're looking forward to tomorrow's game
—Oliver Glasner
With Jørgen Strand Larsen suspended, due to accumulation of yellow cards, Jean-Philippe Mateta is likely to start up front on Thursday evening, with Glasner noting: "JP played the full 90 minutes in an in-house game, and scored three goals, so he seems to be ready!
"He was out for six weeks in total where he couldn’t train with us and we had to build him up to being ready. I don’t know if he can play the full 90 minutes tomorrow.
"I expect the game to be a little bit more intense than the in-house game, but he had the full week with us in training and he trained last week with us, and he showed that he is ready to start."
The Manager also said of Cheick Doucouré, who has recently featured for the U21s: "Cheicky had a few disrupted weeks. First of all, he had a daughter – that means he was two or three days not in!
"Then, he started training, then he felt a little bit, in his muscle, not really a heavy injury, but after two or three days' training, he was out for two or three days.
"Then, he was in again, we had a scan, he's fine, so I’m hoping he’ll be back by the end of the week. The most important thing is, as he’s missed almost the last two years, he gets back to where he's stable, a training rhythm and then a playing rhythm – so we still have to be very cautious."
Palace’s match against Fiorentina is their first in three weeks, since a dramatic 2-1 win away at AEK Larnaca in the Round of 16 – 21 days marking the Eagles’ sixth-longest mid-season break in the club's history.
“I think we managed the three weeks quite well for everyone,” Glasner explained. “To be honest, for all the players, this was an incentive for qualifying for the quarter-finals – they had eight days off straight after the Larnaca game!
“When I went home my calendar was empty and I was a bit nervous about what to do because I’m not used to it, but then I went skiing in the mountains, it was good, for two days, and I spent some time with the family, my father’s and husband’s duty!
“Then we started with the players who were here – seven players plus a few from our Under-21s. We started two weeks before tomorrow’s game, and we had an in-house game with our U21s to stay in the rhythm.
“All internationals had minutes with their national teams, then all the internationals had a few days off after their second game – we could afford this because we didn't play at the weekend.
"On Saturday, I went to Verona to watch Fiorentina live in the stadium there. Since Sunday, we were all together - we always start four days before a game to prepare.
“With all this, we had quite a lot of time to prepare – we feel ready and we're looking forward to tomorrow's game.”
Match Details
Crystal Palace v Fiorentina
- Thursday, 9th April
- 20:00 BST
- UEFA Conference League quarter-final
- Selhurst Park
- Live audio commentary on Palace TV+