Patrick Vieira feels that Ebere Eze is now fully fit and ready to tackle Crystal Palace’s final seven Premier League fixtures with more game time.
The 23-year-old midfielder suffered a season-ending Achilles injury during training last May that caused him to miss the start of the new campaign under Vieira. But - after first featuring for the club’s Under-23s against Blackburn and Chelsea - he made his return to the first team off the bench in November’s 2-1 home defeat to Aston Villa.
Since then, Vieira has managed Eze’s game time carefully. His first league start didn't come until two months after the Villa game away at Brighton in January and he's been used sparingly in the top flight since, being an unused substitute for all five games of Palace's unbeaten league run from the end of February and into early April. In total, he’s only seen a total of 170 minutes of action in the Premier League so far this season. The majority of his game time has instead come during Palace’s FA Cup run.
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Eze started the third-round win at Millwall in January and played for an hour before then getting 70 minutes in the wins against Hartlepool in the fourth round and Everton in the quarter-finals. Against Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday - with Conor Gallagher ineligible to play against his parent club - Eze completed 90 minutes for the first team for the first time in 11 months and drew praise from his manager for his performance in the 2-0 defeat.
“This is something he has been waiting for a while for - to play 90 minutes,” said Vieira ahead of Palace’s midweek trip to Newcastle. “Now he’s had a couple of months of training every day, he’s been playing a couple of minutes and is now fully fit to look for these 90-minute games. The more games he plays the better he will feel but I was really pleased with his 90. He felt tired after the game but that was expected.
“What is important for him is that with seven games left, he will start some of them and he will come off the bench from others. What is important for him is to keep training on a regular basis to build his fitness and see what happens at the end of the season. I’m really pleased with what he’s been showing and he will play games from now until the end of the season.”
That could start with more minutes against Newcastle tomorrow night - a club who have tracked Eze's long-term progress and have been interested in signing before. The Magpies already have a talented, creative midfielder in their ranks with Allan Saint-Maximin, someone who Vieira previously worked with while managing in Ligue 1 with Nice.
Asked what the similarities between managing Saint-Maximin and Eze were, Vieira said: “You really need a lot of energy. But [Saint-Maximin] was a joy to work with. He is somebody who loves the game and loves football. He has so much quality that allowed him to dream about being an international player.”
During Vieira and Saint-Maximin’s time in Nice the pair did not always see eye to eye though, with the Palace boss telling reporters in 2019 that the future Newcastle fan favourite’s problem was that he didn’t work hard enough for the team and was more focused on his individual talent. Vieira eventually sanctioned Saint-Maximin’s move to Tyneside, where he has scored 12 goals in 87 appearances across three seasons.
“That was his aim, he always talked about playing in the Premier League, he loved the atmosphere,” added Vieira on Tuesday. “Him having the move to Newcastle was something he was looking for and he looks like he is enjoying his football since he’s been in England.”
