Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha could miss the weekend trip to Brighton and Hove Albion after being charged with improper conduct by The Football Association.

The charge relates to a gesture made by Zaha towards travelling Leeds United fans after the 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park last Saturday.

Zaha, who joined Manchester United in January before returning to Palace on loan for the rest of the season, was subjected to abuse throughout the game and later apologised on Twitter for an alleged incident between himself and the Leeds support.

Wilfried Zaha
Zaha joined Manchester United in January.

"I want to apologise for the gesture I did towards the Leeds fans in yesterday's game," Zaha wrote on Twitter before later deleting the message. "Very unprofessional from me."

The 20 year old is likely to receive a one-match ban and a substantial fine for the incident and is therefore expected to miss the trip to arch rivals and fellow play-off contenders Brighton this weekend.

Manager Ian Holloway has also been charged by The FA for alleged misconduct following comments he made towards referee Dean Whitestone.

Holloway was seen confronting the official after the game while he described his performance as 'diabolical' during his post-match interview after his failure to send off Leeds' Luke Varney.

"I thought he was absolutely diabolical," Holloway told BBC Sport. "Luke Varney should have been sent off.

"A tackle on Jonny Williams a deliberate tackle from behind that's a yellow card I thought the referee was absolutely diabolical today. I just want what I believe I saw out there to be right.

"It is a blatant yellow card when Luke Varney fouls Jon Williams from behind but the referee hasn't the gumption to give it," he later told a post-match press conference. "Two minutes later Varney dives and gets a yellow but he should have been off.

"Then Wilf [Zaha] is through on goal and he is scythed down. If that's not a goalscoring opportunity what is? But he gives a yellow. I don't know how the ref did not see that.

"We missed too many chances and should have killed the game off, but I'm relying on the ref being brave enough to give out yellow cards. He was so lenient it was frightening."

The ex-Blackpool boss, who also met with Whitestone privately after the game, could face a fine and a touchline ban if found guilty of the offence.

Both Zaha and Holloway have until 4pm 15 March to respond to the charge.

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