• Winger likely to miss six weeks of league season for Africa Cup of Nations • Zaha, who left Abidjan aged four, won two caps for England

Crystal Palace are braced to be without their player of the year, Wilfried Zaha, for up to five weeks in the new year after the twice-capped England international expressed his intention to declare for Ivory Coast before the Africa Cup of Nations.

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Zaha, his family and his representatives are understood to have met the president of the Ivorian football federation, Augustin Sidy Diallo, and the team’s senior coach, Michel Dussuyer, on Sunday to finalise his agreement to represent the country of his birth. The 24-year-old, who was pictured holding the Elephants’ shirt, was apparently first approached by the former Arsenal forward and Ivory Coast captain Gervinho, currently playing with Hebei China Fortune, to ascertain his interest.

Talks have been continuing with the Ivorian Football Federation since then, with the final administrative details of the switch now being formalised. Zaha, the eighth of nine children in a family who departed for England seeking better opportunities, left Abidjan at the age of four and settled in Thornton Heath, south London. He has graduated through Palace’s junior sides, made 13 appearances for England under-21s and, on the back of eye-catching form in the Championship, earned his first senior cap under Roy Hodgson in a 4-2 defeat in Sweden in November 2012.

A second followed at home to Scotland the following summer by which time Zaha was a Manchester United player but he has been overlooked ever since despite encouraging form since his return to Palace. He has one goal and four assists from his last five Premier League appearances in a side which has tumbled down the table and only last week the Palace manager, Alan Pardew, had urged the Football Association to reassure the forward he had a future in the national set-up.

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“It’s a situation that’s been pushed forward, probably by his agent or people around him,” said Pardew on Friday. “I think Wilf is hoping England come in for him. Personally I think he warrants a call. Look at the numbers. The ball’s not in Wilf’s court but in England’s. I can understand his frustration. He’s played with players who are picked at that level and feels he deserves another chance. There aren’t many other English players who can beat players like he does in the Premier League. Some do but they’re not English.”

His absence if, as would appear inevitable, he is selected for the tournament in Gabon in the new year would represent a considerable blow for Palace, who could potentially be without their most creative attacker for games against West Ham United, Everton, Bournemouth and Sunderland.