Eagles boss Oliver Glasner delivers positive update on Matheus França and Chadi Riad
Crystal Palace duo Chadi Riad and Matheus França are making steady progress in their recoveries from long-term injuries.
Riad, who joined the Eagles from Barcelona in the summer, suffered an MCL injury in his second appearance for the South London club, being withdrawn ten minutes into Palace's EFL Cup win over Norwich.
Last weekend, the Moroccan international was named in the matchday squad for the first time since the end of August after making a full return to training.
To aid his recovery, the 21-year-old played 45 minutes for Crystal Palace Under-21s in mid-December and is set for more minutes when Darren Powell's side face Fulham on Monday.
Alongside gaining sharpness with the academy, Eagles boss Oliver Glasner confirmed the centre-back will be involved again this weekend in the wake of another successful training week.
"What's important is that he has no reaction in training," said Glasner.
"He’s always training and getting confident. We're giving him this feeling of being in the squad again, even if he didn’t train a lot with us.
"He will be in the squad tomorrow. If everything goes how we expected, he will have some minutes with our under-21s on Monday – he needs to get back into the rhythm after being out for over three months.
"We didn’t train a lot over Christmas because we had so many games. Now we have a short week and then one long one until Stockport, and then we have three games again.
"He needs training sessions and minutes to play. We try to find the right set-up for him to get him back into his best shape as soon as possible."
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Glasner also provided a positive update on Franca, who returned to Crystal Palace training this week following 11 months on the sidelines.
Similarly to Riad, the Brazilian will be expected to build his fitness in the Premier League 2 before being involved with the first team.
Despite showing encouraging signs in training, França remains unready to feature for the Under-21s.
"He started training with the group this week," Glasner shared, "but the players had Monday and Tuesday off. Two of the sessions were light, and Wednesday was a bigger session.
"It was great having him back on the pitch. He's doing well. We are always watching the reaction of his body.
"Building him up slowly and slowly. We’re not in a rush saying you have to be back in a week or 10 days. We don’t want him to have a setback.
"It’s about getting him stable and back to when Crystal Palace signed him 18 months ago.
"Getting stable, getting his confidence back and getting him into his best shape. Then he can show his potential – he has a lot of it."
