Can Cheick Doucoure regain a place in the Palace starting eleven?
When asked to name midfielders who play for the Conference League holders, Cheick Doucoure is one name neutral fans may well miss off their list and understandably so.
The Malian midfielder has only featured 26 times in the last three seasons for Palace.
0 appearances in the 2025/26 season, 14 in the 2024/25 campaign and 12 in the 2023/24 season.
However, he is one name I and many Palace fans will not have forgotten.
The 26-year-old is entering his fifth year in South London and will be hoping that he can soon return to being a starter as he once was previously.
INJURY AFTER INJURY
The 25th November 2023. Kenilworth Road, Bedfordshire. Luton were our hosts that day on game week 13 of the 2023/24 campaign.
They have since suffered back-to-back relegation while our team has had a stark change as well.
Eight of our starting lineup that day are no longer contracted to the club.
A venture through a back garden pre-game led to a 2-1 loss to a newly promoted side.
However, this disappointing result was overshadowed by the loss of two key players. Eberechi Eze was forced off with an injury and Cheick Doucoure were stretchered off within five minutes.
A ruptured achilles tendon would see our defensive midfielder out from November until the start of the 2024/25 campaign.
A toe injury would then see him out for seven weeks from Leicester at home in September 2024 until Wolves in November after a few appearances in the opening matches of the season under Oliver Glasner.
A meniscus injury would see his season over in January 2025 and ruled out for over 400 days.
After a few appearances for the under 21s he would suffer a set back to his recovery ruling him out yet again.
INTEREST FROM ELSWHERE
His initial injury prompted the signing of Adam Wharton from Blackburn Rovers in January 2024.
But before Wharton’s arrival, Doucoure himself was the star in the midfield winning the Player of the Season award in 2022/23.
It is now Wharton being linked with a big money move away from Palace, but it was once Doucoure.
Cheick was rumoured to be close to moving to Liverpool in the summer of 2023.
This was believed to be for a fee in the region of £70m in what would have been a profit of around 50 million pounds.
WHAT HE CAN ADD
Another key Doucoure date 30th May 2023 when he dropped one of Palace’s hardest bars to caption his Instagram post. “I do not speak English, I speak the Palace language.”
Drake recently dropped his album Iceman, but this bar was that cold it should have featured.
Normally if you were to say you speak the Palace language, (or insert any other club for that matter), you would expect the player to have brought into the club and bleed red and blue.
He would play in the 22/23 campaign both in a midfield two and three at times with Patrick Vieira and Roy Hodgson changing between a 4-3-3 and a 5-2-3.
His physicality would see him boss the midfield. According to FotMob, he racked up 56 interceptions and 77 tackles in his debut season as a right sided centre midfielder or as a six in the base of the midfield.
WRITER’S VERDICT
Well, I and many others have dreamed of the day we will see Adam Wharton and Doucoure start together consistently in a double pivot.
However, this may not be the case after Wharton and Daichi Kamada have formed a formidable double pivot.
While he’ll be working his way back to full fitness, it is expected that Wharton and Kamada will continue to be the pairing in the heart of midfield.
But if Wharton is sold next summer or Kamada doesn’t renew his contract, despite the cliché, Doucoure may well be like a new signing in SE25 if he can stay fit. So I do hope it is his comeback season and we can see him play some significant minutes in our Europa League and cup competition games.
Do you think Cheick Doucoure can earn a place back in the team? – Comment below or in the Fanzone – OURCPFC.
