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Jean Philippe-Mateta is facing a major World Cup fitness dilemma. The Crystal Palace striker saw his dream £30m deadline day move to AC Milan fall through after medical checks on a knee issue.

Mateta, 28, has been playing with the problem for some time and now must decide whether to undergo surgery and try to get back to full fitness in time to make the France squad for this summer.

There would be no guarantee that he would regain fitness in time to play games to prove his fitness in time to get picked by France boss Didier Deschamps. But Mateta also knows the problem has been dragging on and affecting his form, performances and availability.

It has left him concerned that if he is below his best then he might not get the opportunities or chances to play his way into the France squad.

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Mateta has enjoyed an incredible year at Palace as he has won the FA Cup, scored big goals and also helped the club into Europe. But now Mateta faces the prospect of having to go back to Palace even though he has made it very clear that he wants to quit Selhurst Park.

It looks inevitable that Mateta will leave in the summer when he will have just have 12 months left on his contact and Palace cannot afford to let him run his contract down.

They sold Marc Guehi for a cut-price fee to Manchester City in a deal worth up to £30m which is a fraction of his true value because he only had six months left.

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Mateta will now have discussions with Palace and medical experts about the next step over the treatment on his knee. Surgery could rule him out for months and that would wreck his chances of making the World Cup.

Mateta is devastated over the collapse of the Milan move after he also saw interest from Juventus fall down while Nottingham Forest had a bid turned down.

He unfollowed Palace on Instagram over the weekend and posted a fed-up emoji. It remains to be seen whether he will be picked to face Brighton this weekend.

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