Andriy Yarmolenko has tested positive for Covid 19.
The Hammers winger – who is having a pretty horrible time of things this season is one of five Ukranians named by the nation’s Football Association.
The news comes on the eve of the team’s Nations Cup match against Germany and is a bitter blow for the Hammer who was responsible for a missed penalty earlier in the week.
After a long period of injury last season and having to spend most of his time on the West Ham bench following the arrival of influential summer signing Jarrod Bowen, he has now been hit with this new blow.
He follows Issa Diop, former Hammer Josh Cullen and manager David Moyes as a victim of the pandemic which has rocked the game and the world over the last nine months or so.
He is highly unlikely to be in the squad which travels to Sheffield United for the Hammers next Premier League fixture.
The Ukrainian Football Association reported that Yarmo, Serhii Sydorchuk, Viktor Kovalenko and Viktor Tsyhankov, and staff member Vadym Komardin all tested positive for COVID-19.
The association said they remained isolated in their hotel rooms while the rest of the team left for training. Ukraine can still call on 17 outfield players and four goalkeepers for Saturday’s game in Leipzig.
These international’s are ridiculous, loads of players mixing and traveling from different countries, I just don’t see how footballers are important people that need to travel.
It’s a game of football and it’s not even for their employers.
Let’s see who else we lose by next week.
The clots who have allowed International matches and European club tournaments to go ahead should be brought to task. Most countries are in some form of lockdown and allowing these matches to proceed merely adds to the risk to the public at large. Indeed, the mayor of Liverpool blamed a European Cup fixture against one of the Madrid sides back in March for the rapid infection rates in the City, from which it has not yet recovered. The infection was brought in by thousands of Spanish supporters who were allowed to travel when that country was one of the first to be badly affected.
It is great that domestic football has returned, but games will continue to be played behind closed doors while these unnecessary risks are being taken. There are yet more international fixtures to be played…how many other players are going to have to quarantine before our much more important fixture against The Blades.