Seven months earlier, he’d been sidelined by a thigh strain deep between two muscles that was near-impossible to treat.
Shortly afterwards, new manager Iain Dowie and sport psychologist John Harbin took over at Palace and implemented a gruelling change of routine.
From the medical room, Powell’s journey to the pitch suddenly became a lot more demanding.
“Every time I would get myself back to the level to train at, I would break down again,” Powell recalled, speaking to the club in 2020 - an interview today (17th May) republished on the 19th anniversary of a famous night.
“The regime they [Dowie and Harbin] set up - the physical nature of it was intense. We had three sessions a day; boxing, swimming and all sorts. One day, early in the morning before even breakfast, we went swimming and then did some training and after training I remember seeing Gary Borrowdale bombing [off] - he was just gone. The training was so intense.
“Our warm-ups were almost a whole session; they’d last 45 minutes to a bloody hour. Then we would train. But the positives were that when I came back from injury, I felt fit and I was ready to go.
