When Niclas Füllkrug sustained a hamstring injury at Villa Park on Friday, shortly after returning from another setback, it highlighted a painfully familiar pattern that has plagued West Ham over the years.
During his time at West Ham, Gianluca Scamacca was frequently side-lined, missing a total of 181 days between 2022 and 2023 due to various injuries. His struggles have continued at Atalanta, where he has been out for a total of 219 days, his most recent setback being a cruciate ligament tear.
Sebastien Haller’s injury record at West Ham was relatively modest, with just 46 days lost to minor issues. However, his career took a tragic turn when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer while playing for Borussia Dortmund. After overcoming the illness and returning to football, Haller—now on loan at Utrecht following a disappointing stint at Leganés—has suffered repeated ankle injuries.
Andy Carroll and Michail Antonio have also endured long-term injury problems throughout their Hammers careers.
One striker who defied the odds was Demba Ba. Signed in 2011 after failing a medical at Stoke City, Ba had a successful half-season with West Ham, scoring seven goals in 12 games before joining Newcastle United. Despite a career-threatening injury in China, he played professional football until the age of 39.
West Ham have also narrowly avoided signing strikers who have been plagued by injuries throughout their careers, most notably Tammy Abraham and Armando Broja.
Evan Ferguson, linked with a loan move to West Ham, missed 146 days in the 2023/24 season due to an ankle injury.
With the striker search now in full swing and limited funds available, West Ham’s medical staff will need to remain extra vigilant to ensure any new signings can withstand the rigours of Premier League football.
He was playing against Salford, he’s won’t get a look in until they sell him, it’s what man city do with nearly all their youngsters
Big strikers seem more susceptible to injury than most players. They do a lot of running and jumping. Lot of weight coming down and they tend to get beaten up by even bigger defenders who see them as a viable target.
Injuries are part and parcel to the game ,my concern would be that these players are bought then not used due to not fitting the style of play employed by various managers ,so surely the solution to our striker problem is to find someone that actually suits the system
Recruitment generally poor for ages, not just up front.
Steidten has lot to answer for in the recent summer catastrophe, Fullkrug with injury problems for years, and we pay 27.5m for him. That’s gross incompetence which in any other walk of life would be a straight sacking !
Feel a bit sorry for Potter as the rebuild is much more of a major overhaul than he probably realised, but then that’s why Managers get paid mega bucks.
Good luck, Graham ! 👍
Divin Mubama scored for Man City , perhaps Westham can get him on a loan . Blame Moyes for not playing him , thus chasing him away for free to Man City .
Completely agree Phil. He scored on his debut for Man City last night and Shearer raved about the quality of his movement, intelligent link up play and ability to run the channels. He was with us for 9 years in The Academy and he is certainly a major upgrade on Danny Ings. He was on the bench for 3 games last month for City which shows Pep’s belief in his quality and I would love to see him back at the club.
He was on the bench more times for us and he was a lot younger then.
He wasn’t ready and why he thought he’d get more game time at Man City is beyond me.