The extent of Tomas Soucek’s injury, or even the exact details of what happened to the West Ham United midfielder, are yet to be disclosed.
But it certainly didn’t look good.
Soucek was stretchered off during the Czech Republic’s World Cup exit in Mexico City; a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of the co-hosts bringing a fitting end to what has been a real damp squib of a tournament from Miroslav Koubek’s aggressively-underwhelming outfit.
Fears grow after Soucek injury; Send your message to the Czech giant here! 👇
As he closed down a Mexico goal kick, West Ham United’s number 28 landed awkwardly and fell to the turf in agony before being helped off by Vladimir Coufal and Edson Alvarez.
Did he just roll his ankle? Or did he jar his knee? You know the alternative is bad when the fans are praying for the former…
West Ham United will be desperate to avoid a lengthy Tomas Soucek absence
According to Czech publication Ruik, and backed up by ExWhuEmployee, fears are that Soucek has torn the ligaments in his knee. Or, in other words, the dreaded ‘ACL’.
“As we all know, this injury usually rules out a player for the entire season, not to mention surgeries and a high chance of complications. That’s what [Czech teammate] Lukas Provod could tell Tomas Soucek.
“But we will still hope that the diagnosis will ultimately be significantly more optimistic.”
Provod missed ten months of football between 2021 and 2022. But West Ham do not need reminding how an injury such as this can affect a footballer in his 30s.
Angelo Ogbonna missed 39 West Ham games when he tore his knee ligaments at the age of 33 during an otherwise joyous 3-2 victory over Liverpool in 2021.
“At my age, to come back from that sort of injury, it is not easy,” Ogbonna told the official West Ham website a few years ago. “I try to look after myself so I knew I could come back in the best shape possible.
“They say age is just a number and I believe that to be true. Everything comes from your own mindset, and my mentality was always positive.”
Unfortunately, you cannot really escape the fact that Ogbonna – who was playing the best football of his West Ham career until that fateful 2021 afternoon – was not quite the same when he returned to the pitch. The former Italy international would only start 21 league matches in his final two seasons before a brief stint at Watford.
Soucek, at the age of 31, will undoubtedly be awaiting the results of his scan with bated breath.
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Turf Moor is a tough start…
An ACL injury could keep Soucek out for the whole of 2026/27
“It is hard to tell initially what the injury is. His ankle looks to give way which will be the better of the two, whereas it could be his knee and fears that he has done his ACL,” club insider ExWHUEmployee tells The West Ham Way.
“The injury looked very serious and as we know Tomas isn’t one to go down lightly. Scans will take place but it looks like he could miss at least some part of the new season.”
Soucek, as countless admirers have said over the years, is West Ham’s warrior. If anyone can come back stronger from a potential long-term injury, it is their towering Terminator.
Who knows? Perhaps it will turn out to be an issue with his ankle? An ankle ligament injury can keep a player out for over three months, but we will take that over a potential nine to 12 month absence.
All we can do now is wait and hope.
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