Exclusive: Crystal Palace set for huge injury boost as Jean-Philippe Mateta return timeline revealed

Mateta has been out since August with a hamstring injury suffered shortly before Palace’s 4-1 defeat to Manchester City.

The 29-year-old played 63 minutes as Palace were beaten 2-0 by Everton on the opening weekend of the season, but he has not featured for the Eagles since and looks set to miss out on a call-up to Zinedine Zidane’s inaugural France squad ahead of the upcoming international break.

The striker, who is out of contract next summer, came close to leaving Selhurst Park in January but saw a Deadline Day move to AC Milan break down after a failed medical detected a knee injury.

Returning star: Jean-Philippe Mateta

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Having declined to have surgery on the issue, Mateta returned to fitness and scored the winning goal in the final as Palace lifted the Conference League in May.

He was then rewarded with a place in France’s World Cup squad as Les Bleus reached the semi-finals in North America.

Palace, who rejected a £25million bid from Aston Villa for their No14, had been open to selling Mateta this summer before his hamstring injury scuppered any chance of a move away.

Mateta’s future remains uncertain, though, after it was revealed in August that he had been arguing that the final year of his Palace contract should be ruled invalid.

The Frenchman has seen his attempt to cancel his Palace contract rejected by both a Premier League tribunal and FIFA, but as it stands, he is free to leave the club next summer.