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In what could be a depressing occurrence for Lopetegui and for the player himself, Niclas Fullkrug has withdrawn from the German National Squad during the final training session before his national teams upcoming match against the Netherlands.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.
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.
