Jean-Philippe Mateta made his first appearance on Saturday since his ear was “destroyed” as he was named in Crystal Palace‘s starting XI for their FA Cup quarterfinal clash with Fulham, although he did so wearing a protective helmet.

Mateta suffered the ear laceration after he was kicked in the head during a collision with Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts in a fifth-round clash earlier this month that saw the forward taken to hospital.

In an interview published by L’Equipe, Mateta said he was lucky the outcome was not more severe.

“I was afraid I’d have broken bones or blood in my brain, but in fact, my ear was just destroyed,” Mateta said. “At the last moment, I had the reflex to turn my face. I was lucky because if I hadn’t, I would have taken his foot right in the head, and it would have been much worse.

“After that, I never lost consciousness. I was lying on the ground, and I said to the doctor: ‘I’m fine, I want to play again.’ But he, seeing my ear, replied: ‘No, you have to go.’

“A plastic surgery specialist came and took pictures of my ear, which he refused to show me, so as not to let them stay in my head. Obviously, it didn’t look like an ear any more. At the beginning of the operation, the surgeon had a lot of trouble, but afterwards, as he explained to me, he found a way to save my ear. He did a hell of a job.”

Mateta was later discharged from hospital after Palace earned a 3-1 win over Millwall and Roberts was subsequently handed a six-game ban.

The 27-year-old has scored 15 times in all competitions for Palace this season.

“He feels comfortable,” Palace boss Oliver Glasner said on Friday when asked about Mateta’s headgear. “When he scores a header tomorrow 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.”

Asked whether he was worried Mateta might be reluctant to go into challenges with his head, Glasner said: “He did it the whole last two weeks. The doctor and the team did a great job finding the right protection. We tried two or three different ones — everything is approved by the Premier League. If I believed it’s a problem, I wouldn’t play him.”