Crystal Palace supervisor Oliver Glasner has given a worrying replace on the health of Matheus Franca.
The 20-year-old ahead — a nine-time worldwide throughout varied youth ranges for Brazil — was an extremely thrilling £26m signing for Palace when he arrived from Flamengo in the summertime of 2023.
Franca arrived at Selhurst Park having scored 9 objectives in 54 appearances for the Scarlet-Black, successful Copa Libertadores and Copa do Brasil titles.
Nevertheless, his time with Crystal Palace to date has been totally derailed by accidents, with Franca first spending an prolonged interval sidelined with a rib fracture, whereas he’s at the moment out with a groin drawback.
Franca has performed simply 12 instances for Palace to date, failing to attain and offering only one help. Solely two of these appearances have come underneath Glasner, whereas he’s but to characteristic this season.
Any hope amongst Crystal Palace supporters that they might see Franca again in motion quickly has been quashed by Glasner.
The truth is, the Brazilian is extremely unlikely to characteristic in any respect for the remainder of 2024.
“He’s too distant,” Glasner mentioned (by way of journalist Bobby Manzi). “I don’t suppose that he’ll play many video games and even one sport in 2024 for us. We anticipated Franca to be again inside two to a few months and he’s nonetheless out.”
Has Matheus Franca already performed his final sport underneath Glasner?
Palace lastly picked up their first Premier League win of the season on Sunday, beating Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 due to a Jean-Philippe Mateta purpose.
Nevertheless, that victory nonetheless leaves them on simply six factors from 9 video games to date, solely two factors adrift of the relegation zone.
Glasner stays underneath immense stress and rumours persist that he could effectively lose his job if outcomes don’t enhance quickly.
With that in thoughts, there’s each likelihood that Franca has already performed his final sport underneath the Austrian coach.
