West Ham appear to be closing in on the permanent signing of Gil Vicente striker Pablo as the January transfer window has opened.
Pablo will cost West Ham around £17.45million and appears to have already jetted in for his medical before the deal is official.
Pablo looks set to be West Ham’s first signing of January…💪
What are YOUR thoughts on this deal?
If the 21-year-old is to feature against Wolves on Saturday, he will need to be registered with the Premier League by 12 pm on Friday.
Doctor explains Pablo’s recent injury setback
Pablo has been battling a muscular injury since the end of November, missing four of the last five games for the Portuguese side.
He did return to play 20 minutes on 20 December, but there appeared to be some kind of setback, which once again ruled him out.
This undoubtedly does not bode well for any club signing him, especially one in the Premier League.
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Players have medicals before their transfers to flag up issues like these, and in case the staff are not satisfied with the results, deals are often called off.
When asked about his situation, Dr Rajpal Brar, an injury expert and sports scientist, claims that West Ham do not have much to fear.
He told Hammers News exclusively: “I don’t think it will impact his medical as long as it’s nothing extreme.
“The club will do what they normally do for soft tissue injuries – continue with treatment, physio and see how he responds to football activities.
“Nothing about it suggests that the deal would potentially be off.”
Will Pablo take time to adapt to life at West Ham?
Adapting to the Premier League is already a challenge in itself and doing so with an injury would only make things more tricky.
However, at 21, the body recovers quickly, and before the injury, he had been playing and scoring regularly.
The Hammers will be hoping that he has already recovered and the physios can then give him the green light to be included in the matchday squad against Wolves.
While he is capable of playing on the right wing, Nuno wants a central striker and is expected to play the Portuguese as a number nine.
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