Jean-Philippe Mateta: Which other footballers have worn headgear as Crystal Palace star makes injury comeback?

The French striker was brought off early into Palace’s FA Cup fifth round tie with Championship club Millwall, when a challenge from goalkeeper Liam Roberts saw Mateta knocked to the ground and requiring 25 stitches in his head.

Roberts - who was sent off - was banned for six matches in the aftermath, while Millwall fans were heard chanting “let him die” as Mateta received medical treatment on the pitch. But after making a miraculously quick recovery, the 27-year-old striker stepped back out onto the pitch today (March 29) as Palace took on Fulham in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

He has led the attacking line while goals from Eberechi Eze, Ismaila Sarr annd Eddie Nketiah put the Eagles 3-0 up.

Speaking before the game, manager Oliver Glasner said: “He feels comfortable [with helmet]. When he scores a header then it was the right mask with the right protection.

“When I’ve watched JP in training he looks the same like before. He needs to get back into his rhythm, he couldn’t train for two weeks. One week he was just at home then he trained for a week individually.

“He’s been lucky that nothing was fractured, no concussion. It was just the ear. I know it was a terrible injury. Some players say that the ear looks better than before now.”

Glasner added that Mateta has lost none of his edge, still going all-in with tackles in team training and proving to the gaffer that he was ready to return.

“The doctor and the team did a great job finding the right protection,” Glasner added. “We tried two or three different ones, everything is approved by the Premier League. If I believed it was a problem, I wouldn’t play him.”

Mateta is not the first footballer to take to the pitch wearing protective headgear, least of all in the Premier League. Perhaps the most famous example of footballers who have worn protective headgear in the past is goalkeeper Petr Cech.

After a clash with Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt in 2006, Cech spent three months on the sidelines and suffered memory loss from their coming-together. When he returned to the pitch in 2007, he was wearing a rugby-esque headguard, similar to those worn in scrums. He then wore this for the rest of his career, until he retired from football in 2019.

Another footballer who wore a helmet during his playing days was Inter Milan’s Cristian Chivu. Like Cech, his skull was fractured during a Serie A game against Chievo in 2010. The Romania captain was one of the first outfield players to step back out onto the grass in protective headgear, and even helped his side reach the Champions League final that season.

Franco Pasquetti, who worked for headgear provider Canterbury at the time, said: “The helmet is simply protection, but it's also a psychological and mental aid. The ball when it hits the cap will be softer than the elbow of another player.”