David Moyes delivered yet another update on West Ham ace Michail Antonio last night and it was slightly worrying to say the least.
The 31-year-old Hammers attacker has been away on international duty with Jamaica over the past seven or eight days.
Antonio only returned from the Caribbean to London late Friday afternoon.
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The West Ham striker played three games in a six day period. He played 71 minutes against Mexico, the full game against Panama and 58 minutes on Thursday night against Costa Rica.
The former Nottingham Forest ace already looked extremely jaded before he went away to link up with the Jamaican nation team. So he will undoubtedly be even more tired now, especially after clocking up 11,000 air miles in a really short period of time.
And Moyes’s latest comments on Micky will hardly fill the Hammers fans with confidence…
Moyes shares Antonio update
The Scot was speaking to reporters yesterday after we scraped through against Kidderminster in the FA Cup.
He responded when asked whether Michail Antonio will be ready to play for West Ham against Watford on Tuesday night, as quoted by Football.London:
“We left London yesterday at two o’clock and Mic had not arrived back yet so that was why we did not have him today so that is not good. It’s not good the situation it would have given me a chance to choose but we did not have Mic back. I have not even seen him since he got back.”
It doesn’t sound good does it.
At least we have a quality backup to come in for the 31-year-old though….oh wait, no we don’t! This is why Moyes absolutely had to bring a striker to the London Stadium in the January transfer window.
That didn’t happen of course. So we have to make do with what we have. If Antonio doesn’t play, Jarrod Bowen will operate through the middle again. The problem with that is that we then lose the 25-year-old on the right wing.
Surely Moyes won’t ever start Andriy Yarmolenko again after his horror show yesterday. So perhaps either Pablo Fornals or Nikola Vlasic will start on the right with Manuel Lanzini in the middle and Said Benrahma on the left.
Antonio may well play against Watford but the fact that there is a doubt about his availability highlights what a huge mistake West Ham made in January by not signing a centre-forward.
Read also:
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Evening Standard claim West Ham actually made £60m bid for striker on deadline day
Di Marzio claims West Ham tried to sign £35 million-rated 30-year-old striker
Report: West Ham rejected the chance to sign ‘special’ £220k-a-week player on D-Day
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