Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton has admitted he has “no memory” of the 2025 FA Cup final, revealing that a severe concussion caused him to lose awareness of the match, including the scoreline, during the game.
Wharton was forced to leave the pitch in the closing minutes of Palace’s historic 1-0 triumph over Manchester City at Wembley in May 2025. The injury occurred when a powerful shot from Kevin De Bruyne struck him on the back of the head. After being taken to hospital for checks, he missed the team’s post-match celebrations.
The incident happened in the 73rd minute, with Palace already leading. Wharton was assessed by club medical staff and continued playing until the 87th minute, when he was replaced by Will Hughes.
A year later, the 22-year-old says he has no recollection of the game, apart from Eberechi Eze’s 16th-minute goal and goalkeeper Dean Henderson’s penalty save against Omar Marmoush in the first half.
“I’ve watched a million clips back and I sort of know what happened, but there’s no memory or recollection of the game. I vaguely remember Ebs (Eze) scoring and Dean saving the penalty, but everything else is missing,” Wharton told *Scouted* magazine.
“It’s weird, because apparently I answered all the questions they asked me initially. I knew who I was, where I was, what the score was, but the concussion must’ve kicked in after because when I came back onto the pitch, I kept asking Chris (Richards) what the score was. He’s trying to concentrate, and I’m asking stupid questions.
“I don’t know how I played on for ten minutes after that.”
The victory marked Palace’s first-ever major trophy. The club is now aiming to add silverware by winning this season’s Conference League, with Spanish side Rayo Vallecano awaiting in the final on May 27 in Leipzig, Germany.
Headway, a British brain injury charity, expressed concern over Wharton’s account. Luke Griggs, the charity’s chief executive, told *The Athletic*: “Wharton’s admission shows both the necessity and limitations of temporary concussion substitutions.
“A period of 10–15 minutes off the pitch, in the quiet confines of a treatment room or changing room, would give team medics a better opportunity to identify emerging signs of concussion and prevent players who have injured their brains from taking additional risks while being monitored from afar as they continue playing.
“It also highlights the fallibility of current ‘sideline’ concussion assessments and the pressure on team medics to make instant decisions based on limited and inconsistent information.
“Concussion is an evolving injury. Once the brain has suffered the initial trauma, the effects of concussion can be instant – or they can take minutes or hours to manifest.
“But concussion is not a muscular injury; waiting to see if the player can ‘run it off’ is not an effective way of treating a brain injury. Medics are still having to make assessments in a short period of time based on observations and cognitive testing – and there is no way of knowing for certain within the time given.
“Football has to do more to educate everyone involved in the game to take an ‘if in doubt, sit it out’ approach to head injuries.”