It had been a good week for Premier League West Ham with two new signings as both Jack Wilshere and Andriy Yarmolenko joined the club. Now comes bad news for the London team as both striker Andy Carroll and defender Winston Reid are going to be out injured for three months.
The Hammers had a troublesome season last year finishing in 13th place and losing 16 league matches. Their poor early season form led to Slaven Bilic being sacked in November of last year and his replacement David Moyes left at the end of last season. New boss, Manuel Pellegrini now faces selection headaches as he prepares for the 2018/19 season.
Carroll on the Sidelines Again
Andy Carroll is no stranger to being on the sidelines and the past five seasons have seen him play just 90 Premier League games for West Ham United. His pre-season started well enough though and he was on the scoresheet as the Hammers in their 3-2 loss away to Swiss team Winterthur. However, the bad news is that Carroll will be undergoing an ankle operation.
Carroll only played 16 league games last season for West Ham and seems to spend more time out injured than playing in what has been a troubled career. He first played for West Ham in 2012 but only managed to see a total of 114 league games with them scoring 33 goals.
Even worse news came when it was revealed that defender Winston Reid needs knee surgery due to an injury he sustained in a Premier League game at Swansea City last season.
“We have decided that this is the best course of action to ensure that both players have a chance of returning to full fitness as soon as possible,” West Ham’s Head of Medical Richard Collinge told the club’s website.
Reid’s Injury Problems Continue
“Winston has been suffering some swelling around the knee injury that he sustained at Swansea last season and he too is in need of explorative surgery to clean up the area,” Collinge, added. Reid only played 17 league games for the Hammers last season. The double injury blow is a major setback for their new manager Manuel Pellegrini, who is looking to get the London team higher up the table after their poor run last season.
Pellegrini to look for Reinforcements
“This is a big blow for them and us, but we hope to see them back in action as soon as possible,” Pellegrini said. “It does mean that we have lost two players in key areas, though, and we’ll continue to work hard with the owners to make further additions to strengthen the playing squad, beyond the five new signings already confirmed.”
Pellegrini has already been busy in the transfer market having signed forward Andriy Yarmolenko, midfielder Jack Wilshere, goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, defenders Issa Diop and Ryan Fredericks. Now it looks as if he will have to get more players into the club to replace those he’ll be missing for the early stages of the upcoming season.
West Ham don’t have an easy start to the season beginning with a trip to Liverpool on August 12. That’s followed by a home game against Bournemouth before another difficult away game as new signing Jack Wilshere goes back to Arsenal.
