Crystal Palace loanee Loic Remy returns to Chelsea for treatment on thigh strain

Crystal Palace have confirmed that injury-plagued striker Loic Remy has returned to Chelsea for treatment following his latest fitness setback that came less than a week after he arrived at Selhurst Park on a season-long loan with a view to potentially joining the club permanently next summer.

Alan Pardew revealed earlier on Thursday that the 29-year-old would miss this weekend's long trip to newly-promoted Middlesbrough after straining his thigh during a training session on Monday (5 September), but stressed that he would not be aware of the severity of the issue until receiving the results of a scan.

Subsequent reports from The Guardian suggested that it was feared Remy could be sidelined for up to two months. Palace have now provided an official update via their website, announcing that the player is indeed expected to miss "a number of weeks" and will undertake his recovery back at parent club Chelsea.

Rather than terminate the loan altogether, however, they insist that their own medical team are "liaising with their counterparts at Chelsea to monitor his progress" and that Remy will be "continually assessed during his rehabilitation".

"It is obviously a blow for the player and for us as a squad, he has just joined us and we were hoping he would play a big part in the team moving forward," Pardew added. "He was looking great in training and this was an innocuous injury which can sometimes happen unfortunately".

Remy has struggled badly with injury since leaving Queens Park Rangers for west London rivals Chelsea in 2014 and was restricted to just three starts last season due to a combination of calf and groin problems. He has made only nine Premier League starts in total over the last two seasons, but will have been hopeful of kickstarting his career at Palace alongside £27m ($35.9m) striker Christian Benteke having previously impressed under Pardew during a loan spell with Newcastle United back in 2013-14.