West Ham United supporters always wave their star players off to international duty with a mixed sense of pride and anxiety: Anyone old enough to remember Dean Ashton and his career-ending injury sustained whilst training with England (Thanks, Sean Wright-Phillips, I have never forgiven you) will share my concerns each time a member of the Hammers squad leaves to wear their countries’ colours. Many felt there was a ‘curse’ on Hammers’ players picking up injuries whilst representing their national sides:
The ‘injury on international duty’ curse has struck again, and this time it is an area of West Ham’s squad where we can least afford it: In attack. This must be a massive headache for head coach Julen Lopetegui!
In what could be a depressing occurrence for Lopetegui and for the player himself, Niclas Fullkrug has withdrawn from the German National Squad during the final training session before his national teams upcoming match against the Netherlands. Fullkrug had scored in just the previous game and so must have been on something on a high.
A dejected Niclas Fullkrug
Sky Sports Reporter Kerry Hau posted on his twitter / X account that Fullkrug has an undetermined calf / achilles injury which forced him out of training after just 15 minutes.
It is likely he will be headed back to West Ham for treatment but has to be an improbable starter in the Fulham match this coming week-end. Mikel Antonio is the obvious starter – but he has a game for Jamaica on Wednesday night so won’t make it back to the UK until late Thursday – hardly in any shape to play on Saturday!
Lopetegui could now face a major rejig of his attacking players, quite possibly along the lines that Claret and Hugh have been proposing with Kudus or Bowen moving infield and playing with Summerville on the left. No doubt many will leap on the ‘this is what happens when your strikers are all in their thirties’ band wagon to blame The Irons’ recruitment policy. Truth is, as we have seen with international injuries to much younger players like Alvarez- the curse can strike any player, any time, regardless of age. Let us hope that it is nothing too serious for West Ham’s and Nic Fullkrug’s sake. We’ll keep you posted.
Utterly sick of the sight of Antonio an utterly useless donkey not even fit for the championship. Him and Ings are an utter disaster. Not blaming anyone just wish theydve both f@@@@@@@ off
I wonder if anyone in your life feels the same way about you and how you feel about Antonio & Ings?
Even if they do, it doesn’t make him wrong about Antonio and Ings.
As we are seemingly back to the grim old days of Charles Hughes and Graham Taylor Long Ball, time for a big tall lump up front so ugly he scares the opposition. Tomas Soucek anyone?
I bet you are beautiful!
Time for Bowen to become 1st choice striker!!!
—————Bowen————–
Summerville–Paq–Kudus
Bowen leading the line and a re-jig of the attacking players available will work. Feel sorry for Fullkrug as he awaits his first start in the league. However, Bowen is effective as a striker, and has proven that in the past. Antonio should be used as an impact substitution. Not as a starter. We have ample firepower in the attacking midfielders. Trust Bowen as captain to lead the line effectively.
People got very upset on here when I referred to Fullkrug as the German Ings.
I admit I was wrong and I take it back…
He’s the German Andy Carroll.
We are only 3 games in & Duran has proved Sullivan & Tim got it wrong on the striker, he’s got a further 12 years to prove just how wrong, who turns down a 20 year old with premiership experience for a near 32 year old with none. Come on !!!
It’s probably one of the most West Ham things that could happen to be fair.
Usually you would expect it to be Sullivan maybe wanting to go for a player recommended by a favoured agent or one he had a gut feeling on. No one would have been shocked if we’d brought in Callum Wilson for example and it was rumoured much of the summer.
But in this case it looks like Tim has brought in an old favourite, someone he’d worked with previously. Maybe gone with heart over head. Gut feeling over data. Reckon this is going to go down as a big error though.
Feel free to jump on me about it being early days and the like. Let’s see how it pans out come the end of the season.
My money’s on all of you talking about Fullkrug the same way you do Ings and Antonio now.