West Ham United striker Javier Hernandez has been ruled out of the clash against Leicester City this weekend, Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed.
The 30-year-old has been ruled out of the 3pm fixture due to sustaining a problem with his ear, and he will join the likes of Manuel Lanzini and Samir Nasri on the sidelines for this match, as relayed by Football London reporter Sam Inkersole on his personal Twitter account.
The attacker played 90 minutes of the 2-1 loss to Manchester United last Saturday, but did not manage to get on the scoresheet alongside Felipe Anderson, and is said to have been missing from training for a couple of days.
Heel injury for Chicharito rules him out this weekend. https://t.co/1fAycsZBFB
— Sam Inkersole (@Sam_InkersoleTM) April 18, 2019
Somewhat ironically, I misheard what Pellegrini said. Hernandez has a problem with his ear, not his heel. Hasn't trained for the last couple of days. https://t.co/MYpRczeSgB
— Sam Inkersole (@Sam_InkersoleTM) April 18, 2019
OPINION
The fact that Hernandez is ruled out of this weekend’s clash is no doubt a major blow for Pellegrini, especially with his strikers not being up to scratch recently. This must mean that Marko Arnautovic is fine to play after he missed last week due to an illness, however, that does not always spell good news. He may offer something different to the side, but recently he has been rather poor and lacklustre. Hernandez, on the other hand, was decent despite the defeat, and caused some problems for the United defence. There is no doubt that most of the West Ham fans would prefer the Mexican international leading the line for them at the moment, as Arnautovic’s attitude hardly makes him deserving of a starting place on Saturday. He is pretty much certain to play considering that Andy Carroll and Lucas Perez are largely out of favour at the moment – so let’s wait and see how that one pans out.
