How Oliver Glasner can call on personal experience to map Jean-Philippe Mateta’s road to recovery

Oliver Glasner could barely bring himself to watch a replay.

The Crystal Palace manager had initially not seen the clash from a clear angle, so he could not accurately judge the severity of the incident. Striker Jean-Philippe Mateta, clattered by Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts early in Saturday’s FA Cup tie between the London neighbours, lay on the ground receiving treatment for nine minutes. He eventually departed on a stretcher before being taken to hospital, where he received 25 stitches to close a wound around his left ear.

It could have been even worse.

Glasner admitted he only opted to watch the collision in all its wince-inducing detail because he knew he would have to discuss it in his post-match press conference.

When you consider how his own days as a footballer ended, that reluctance was understandable.

Glasner suffered a serious head injury in July 2011, prematurely curtailing his playing career at age 36 and threatening his life.

The injury came in a clash of heads with Mario Sonnleitner in an Austrian Bundesliga game while playing for SV Ried against Rapid Vienna. Glasner suffered a concussion but was deemed well enough to travel to Denmark a few days later for the second leg of a Europa League qualifying tie against Copenhagen’s Brondby, and completed a heading drill with assistant coach Michael Angerschmid, now his No 2 at Palace, on the eve of that game.

The following day, Glasner told his room-mate, goalkeeper Thomas Gebauer, he had a headache and would not be joining the squad for lunch. When he failed to attend a pre-match training session later that afternoon, defender Rudolf Zauner went to his room to check on him. He found Glasner sprawled on the floor of his shower, though still conscious, and immediately fetched the club’s doctor, who rang for an ambulance.

Glasner had suffered a brain haemorrhage.

He underwent surgery and, while he made a full recovery, he called a halt to his playing career on medical advice.

His situation was different to Mateta’s — the consequences were far more serious, even if the incident that led to them was more innocuous — yet it is to his credit that Glasner handled the matter delicately in that post-match press conference.

There were no obvious signs of discomfort in discussing his striker’s head injury, and he explicitly sought to dismiss any notion of intent from Roberts, without excusing how dangerous the challenge was. He maintained a balanced approach, as is typical for him.

Glasner can be intemperate — and his exuberance on the touchline extends to testy discussions with opposition managers — but he is an extremely impressive speaker. Typically calm and considered, he rarely allows emotions to cloud his judgement.

He rightly criticised the Millwall goalkeeper’s challenge while expressing concern for his own player’s health above all else.

“You have to decide when you make such an impact — you just can’t do it in this way,” Glasner said. “The risk of a very serious injury is too high, it was the wrong decision.

“I always believe in fair play. Sportsmen never want to injure (the) opposition. But the decision to go to the ball with his foot at this height with this intensity was completely the wrong decision (from Roberts).

“Maybe call it naive but I always believe in the good parts of everyone. I believe he didn’t want to injure JP. I will always believe this. I can judge because I had to end my career because of a head injury and even then I didn’t blame the other player — we crashed (into each other). I mention it quite often: health is the biggest value we all have. You have to decide so quickly. It should be somewhere in the back of your mind.

“He knew he could not go with his hands because it was outside (the box), because then it is a red card (though Miller was sent off anyway). I thought he was scared to go with the head because then they could crash — and then it was the wrong decision to go with his foot at this height. He knows it. He could have withdrawn his leg a little bit after touching the ball.

“There is a human being there and he’s 30, the goalkeeper, and he has a long life ahead of him. I don’t want to accuse him (of intent).”

Roberts connects with Mateta (Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)

Glasner spoke about the importance of health, as he has done consistently in the year he has spent in charge. He will be guided by the club’s medical department and is sure to prioritise Mateta’s wellbeing.

Mateta will only return when he is physically and psychologically ready — the manager has already confirmed he will not be available for Saturday’s Premier League home match against Ipswich Town — and he would be forgiven if he was reluctant to fully commit to aerial duels, which are a significant part of his game, once he does.

We do not know if he will be affected mentally. Mateta, 27, might feel ready to return to action once the wound is protected and he has cleared concussion protocols, but nobody would criticise him if his reintegration was more tentative.

Striker Raul Jimenez did not play in the Premier League for eight months after fracturing his skull in a November 2020 game between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Arsenal and, in reality, it has taken years for him to return to anything resembling his previous form. Jimenez’s injury was far more serious than Mateta’s, though, and he still has no recollection of that clash of heads with Arsenal defender David Luiz.

Glasner said he hoped Mateta would be back for the FA Cup quarter-final with Jimenez’s current club, Fulham, at the end of March, but he will be assessed carefully in training to monitor how he deals with aerial challenges. 

“The key is about rebuilding trust — trust in their body, in the medical staff and their overall instincts that they’re going to be OK,” Marc Sagal, a sports psychologist who has previously worked at Leicester City, Liverpool, Manchester City and the England men’s football team, tells The Athletic.

“It’s about gradual exposure, starting with non-contact and then working into more match-situation scenarios. The expectation that confidence will return immediately is not a good one. There will be ups and downs, but the trick is, through exposure, you move past any trauma and can play without hesitation.

“Our brains are wired to protect us from danger — the fear response is very deep and projective. If you don’t address it, it can lead to behavioural changes — (a player will) pull out of duels, and lose the instinct and aggression you need.

Jimenez eventually returned to football wearing head protection (Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

“I would caution the player against expecting it to be the same again. You’re better off expecting that it’s not ever going to be exactly the same, so is there a new normal that is going to be good enough or even better? It’s not, ‘How do I get back to where I was?’, it’s, ‘How do I get back to a place that’s good enough or better?’.

“The feeling of not having fear is also not a good expectation. The idea is, ‘How can I engage in the right behaviour of what is likely to be increased fear?’.

“The biggest challenge is avoidance behaviour, that you’re not going to engage in the same actions as before. You can mitigate this through controlled exposure; sometimes, visualisation can help too — looking back at past footage of fearless behaviour and potentially even watching the actual injury.”

It may be that Mateta wears head protection when he plays again, something Jimenez and former Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech used after their returns to action following skull injuries, but this, too, can be both helpful and a potential problem for players, Sagal suggests.

“You get psychological reassurance and physical protection that can be very helpful and probably was for Cech, but it’s different for a striker, where you are reliant on vision, agility and precision,” he adds. “You might have problems around the discomfort, distraction and limitations on peripheral vision and awareness. Designs have improved, but I don’t think players like wearing them. 

“You also have a constant reminder, which is maybe not the best thing.

“A lot depends on the player’s mindset. Some players will find a way to rationalise it, ‘It’s a freak accident that is unlikely to happen again’, but the biggest factor is how the athlete interprets it. It’s better if they see it as bad luck, and temporary. Worse if they see it as a potential pattern and they’re vulnerable or if there is a lingering fear of injury and a reliving of the experience.”

Mateta departs on a stretcher at Selhurst Park (Zac Goodwin/PA Images via Getty Images)

How Glasner handles it will also be interesting, but his approach has consistently been glass half-full. His own experience did not significantly impact his outlook, according to those who knew him in Austria back then. He was determined not to dwell on his misfortune.

“It’s like, ‘I had this, but it’s over. The focus is on the future, not the past’,” Xandi Mitterhofer, SV Ried’s director of finance, who has worked for the club since 1996, told The Athletic last year.

“I don’t think about it every day,” Glasner said during a press conference in March last year. “There are many car accidents every day, but when you drive in the car, you never think, ‘I hope I don’t have an accident’. I try to be positive, because then life is easier and better. I was a humble person before and I am now.”

He may not seek to force that perspective onto Mateta, but everyone will hope the reintegration is as quick and as smooth as possible, guided by the striker’s sense of how he feels physically and psychologically.

Palace will be desperate for their top scorer to return to the pitch as close as possible to the player he was before Saturday’s incident, but there must be an acceptance that it may take time for him to get there. 

(Top photo: Crystal Pix/MB Media/Getty Images)