Winston Reid will be hoping and praying his long term injuries are finally behind him as he heads into China for The Asia Trophy games with Man City, Wolves and Newcastle involved.
The central defender has spent over two years in the treatment room over the past six seasons and his last lay off totalled 484 days.
Now however, after a seriously long haul, he is back and played his first football in a substitute appearance against Altach last week.
Manuel Pellegrini will give the New Zealander a full pre-season and with a contract which doesn’t run out until 2023 the Kiwi will be hoping he can make an impact on the first team again despite facing fierce competition from Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena .
Angelo Ogbonna too performed admirably when called into action last season and it all leaves the Hammers in a strong defensive position should Reid sustain form and fitness.
He said – speaking to the official site @https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2019/july/14-july/winston-reid-i-never-lost-faith-i-would-come-back -: ” It’s been a long time – 14 months – since I was out on the pitch in a game, and I feel pretty good don’t have any pain or anything, which is was obviously the main concern.
“When you’ve been out for a long time, as it takes time for your body to get back into rhythm, I guess, and get used to doing football movements.
“There is only so much gym work and running and drills you can do. You have to go out and train every day and take it slow.”
“I never lost faith that I would come back, but it was a long and, at times, difficult rehab. When you’re doing rehab, you’re doing longer hours than when you are fit, with long sessions in the gym and big blocks of work, treatment, other movements, and you need to take breaks.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s tough not being able to play football and being out for a long time and all, but it was an injury I couldn’t do anything about and there are people in far worse situations than I was.
“You’re given a time frame and you work towards it. Obviously, you get periods where you need to literally not come in for three or four days because your body can only do so much work in the gym before it needs a breather.
“The club were really good with me, especially the physios and the staff. They gave me everything I needed to get back in the best possible situation.”
It would be good to see Winston back to his peak he doesn’t have to many howlers in his portfolio …rember he was the target of “so called Big clubs” when at his best..could be good cover along with Ogbonna. .coyi
The one big plus from the summer so far, hoping he will be like a new signing.
Glad he’s recovered and back.
Why were we never given any details of the injury he suffered? Can’t recall being informed of which part of his body was damaged even…
Great to hear this news. Always stayed true to the club and gave 110%. Let’s not forget how good he was before this injury he saved our bacon on more than a few occasions.
Great to see he is back in training at least . He was massive for us and we have missed him. As I have said before on occasions ,,, our injured players coming back to full fitness are like New Signings . Hopefully we will start the coming season without losing our first four games . That’s difficult to recover from and with injuries to key players tougher even still . To be honest , if there hadn’t been a few teams worse than us we would have been staring relegation in the face .. A good start is of course very important and hopefully we kick off 2019/20 in a positive way .. First up ; Man City where anything could happen . After that there are games within the first four fixtures we should be feeling more comfortable about .
It’s a question of Attitude and Application,,, Pelligrini’s job . Not ours .
Great to see Winston back – his last injury was obtained putting his body on the line against Swansea – he got concussed and injured his knee in the fall. As fans I feel taht we should always acknowledge the really loyal players. I wish him a great season