BY ANDREW MCSTEEN
Crystal Palace talisman Adam Wharton will feature in the FA Cup final today after recovering from an ankle injury picked up at the beginning of the month.
The England midfielder picked up the knock at home to Nottingham Forest in their league clash on May 5 and subsequently missed the 2-0 win at Tottenham last Sunday.
But, speaking in his pre-match media conference, Palace boss Oliver Glasner confirmed the 21-year-old will return in the English showpiece event against Manchester City at the national stadium.
“It’s positive team news, everybody is fit. Adam trained the whole week and is available, and all others as well,” said Glasner, who has a full squad to choose from, apart from the long-term injured Chadi Riad and Cheick Doucoure. “There are some tough decisions to take, but good decisions to take.”
Last month, the Eagles went 2-0 ahead at City in their Premier League clash, but eventually lost 5-2 with last season’s champions having an indifferent season, compared to previous trophy-laden years.
The FA Cup represents the last chance this season for Pep Guardiola’s side to win silverware, but Glasner insisted that he has mainly concentrated this week in training on what his side are capable of.
“We focused on what we want to do tomorrow at Wembley,” explained the Austrian. “We analysed Manchester City, but 90 per cent of the time we were talking about us – because this is what we can influence, we can influence our performance, we can influence what we want to do in and out of possession and so the focus was on our game.
“We just made one or two small adjustments, because the players especially did very well in the last couple of weeks and so we’re up with a lot of confidence and looking forward to the final.”
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