Graham Potter has revealed a top West Ham star will be ruled out until April as he lifts the lid on a different injury.
There has been no honeymoon period for Graham Potter at West Ham.
Certainly not when it comes to injuries anyway.
Potter was thrust straight into the action within 24 hours of arriving at West Ham last month.
Having already lost Michail Antonio, Jean-Clair Todibo and Jarrod Bowen prior to his arrival, Niclas Fullkrug and Crysencio Summerville were then struck down in the first 45 minutes of Potter’s tenure.
Lucas Paqueta and Carlos Soler have missed games with injury too.
The Hammers have only won once in Potter’s first five games.
Despite all that West Ham fans are seriously enthused by what they have seen from the new manager so far.
The approach, style of play, intensity, pressing and attitude has been transformed in just a few games.
It is making West Ham fans excited about what is possible over the next two-and-a-half years and beyond with their new manager.
Potter is slowly but surely getting players back.
Top West Ham star ruled out until April
Fullkrug and Antonio will miss most, if not all, of the rest of the season.
But Bowen was back at Chelsea and Todibo and Paqueta will return against Brentford.
Striker Evan Ferguson has been added to West Ham’s ranks while James Ward-Prowse adds to the numbers and armoury after his disastrous loan spell at Forest was terminated.
The one big disappointment, though, is Summerville.
Of all the players to have really shone in Potter’s first game it was the flying Dutchman.
The 22-year-old has really excited fans since arriving in a bargain £26m deal from Leeds.
He is comfortably one of the best signings of a poor summer rebuild.
A player for now and the future, Summerville was criminally under-used by Potter’s predecessor Julen Lopetegui.
There was a collected cry of “finally” among Hammers supporters when Potter started Summerville in his first game.
The injury he picked up at Villa Park ruled him out for a few weeks.
Summerville had looked on course for a return when he was spotted all smiles in full training recently.
Now the top West Ham star has been ruled out until April as Potter lifts the lid on a different injury.
The manager worried fans when he revealed Summerville had suffered a setback recently.
West Ham have a history of bizarrely treating injury news like national secrets, offering fans little detail about them or expected recovery timescales.
But refreshingly Potter is changing that.
Potter lifts lid on different Summerville injury
Summerville has actually suffered a new injury to the same leg, Potter has now revealed.
And it’s serious enough that it will keep him out for another two months.
Rather than suffer a recurrence of his injury, Summerville has actually sustained a new injury in the same hamstring.
Frustratingly it came right at the end of his recovery from the previous issue.
Now he will be out until after the March international break – which means he won’t be available until the game at Wolves on April 2nd, at the earliest.
“Summerville has had a setback with his hamstring, so you’re probably looking at him being around after the international break, which is a bit of a blow for us of course and for him,” Potter revealed on West Ham’s website.
“It was the back end of his rehab, he just felt something again, a slightly different part of his hamstring, so obviously it’s very disappointing for him and for us.
“But he’s a few weeks on now with that and, like I said, I think the other side of the international break is when we’ll probably see him.”
When Summerville is back, he is clearly a player who will be featuring as a starter.
Potter has spoken highly of him and sees him thriving in his system and linking up well with new signing Ferguson.
“Evan will bring his own quality and level of play – he’s a good finisher and he can link the play well, and once we have Crysencio back from injury as well we’ll have even more options up there,” Potter added.
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