Dan Cook believes that James McArthur may never play for Crystal Palace again following his latest injury setback.
McArthur has been a great servant for Palace over the years, having joined back in 2014 for just £5.5m and going on to rack up 249 appearances across all competitions, helping them to reach the FA Cup final in that time.
However, it could be soon coming to an end, with McArthur’s contract set to expire in the summer and considering he hasn’t played a minute of action this season due to injuries while other players come to prominence.
Patrick Vieira recently revealed the midfielder has suffered a setback in his attempts to return to full fitness, and Cook now believes that McArthur may never be seen in Palace colours before he departs next summer.
Will McArthur play for Palace again?
Yes!
No!
Speaking on the HLTCO podcast, he said: “Patrick Vieira spoke to the press post-match [against Botafogo] and revealed that both James McArthur and Nathan Ferguson have had setbacks in their planned returns from injury.
“Of course, Jimmy [McArthur] has this long-term hip problem, and at the age of 35, I think it’s probably fair to say there’s a decent chance we won’t ever see him pull on a Crystal Palace shirt again, as sad as that is.”
TIF Thoughts on McArthur…
Having turned out so many times for them, it will certainly be a sad way for things to end for McArthur if he indeed doesn’t ever play for Palace again, so he will be doing everything he can to play a part this season.
However, there is no room for sentiment in football and Palace can’t be handing out appearances and contracts to players just because they have been around for a long time, so McArthur will have to somehow show he deserves to stick around at Selhurst Park and get back to fitness as soon as possible.