West Ham will not be able to call on the services of Lucas Paqueta for Saturday’s Premier League match against Tottenham.
The Hammers travel to their bitter rivals for a match that has widely been dubbed as ‘El Sackico’.
Indeed, both Nuno Espirito Santo and Thomas Frank are under huge pressure after miserable tenures in charge of West Ham and Tottenham respectively.
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Quite what happens to either manager if they lose the game remains to be seen.
What is for certain, however, is that Paqueta will not be playing in Tottenham versus West Ham. Here’s why.
Lucas Paqueta is dealing with a back injury
No matter the speculation about his future, the official line is that Paqueta has a back injury.
The midfielder missed West Ham’s win over QPR with a similar issue and will not feature in north London either amid ongoing speculation about his future.
Interestingly, Paqueta has been linked with a move to Tottenham, but they have already signed Conor Gallagher during the January transfer window.
At Thursday’s pre-match press conference, Nuno said: “Lucas is [undergoing] treatment.”
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West Ham’s record without Lucas Paqueta this season
The Hammers have won only three games in the Premier League all season, so it’s not as if they’ve been a brilliant side when being able to call upon the Brazilian.
Still, none of those victories came in the games that Paqueta has missed thus far. They’ve drawn twice without him, while losing the other one.
He did, however, miss five Premier League games during the 2024/25 campaign and West Ham won four of them.
Though having to deal with speculation over his future is obviously an unwelcome distraction in a relegation battle, West Ham have previously performed well without the former Lyon star in the side.
The ongoing speculation over Paqueta’s West Ham future looks set to continue for a while.
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