Bad news surrounding West Ham United’s Niclas Fullkrug continues as he was confirmed to be out again by manager Julen Lopetegui in a recent press conference.
The Hammers are set to get the Premier League underway again after a brief international break and travel across London to face rivals Tottenham Hotspur at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this weekend.
This match-up has been exciting over the last few seasons and Lopetegui’s squad will believe they can cause an upset and potentially pick up all three points and jump ahead of Spurs in the table.
However, they need to do it without the services of summer signing Fullkrug, whose injury issues seem worse than originally feared with the Spanish manager confirming he will not participate in the game.
Lopetegui said in his pre-match press conference: “I think that Fullkrug is out, but I am going to meet with the rest and we don’t have bad news about them.
“He initially thought he had one non-important injury, but he has had complications and we are waiting to recover him.
“We thought he would be out for a maximum of two weeks, but right now he is out and I don’t say anything about how long he will be out. We will see.”
Fullkrug’s rough start continues
The German striker has hardly seen any time on the pitch this season, racking up just 63 Premier League minutes after arriving for £27m this summer, with his largest contribution being 27 minutes in their win over Crystal Palace in August.
Unfortunately for the player and fans, he sustained a calf injury while on international duty with Germany in September and has not featured for the East London club since, sparking potential worries of another falling to the Hammers striker curse.
Doubts around the 31-year-old’s move to the club have been heard all summer, with Italian outlet Tutto Juve putting him into their worst 10 summer transfers.
However, there is definitely a good player there. Last season Fullkrug bagged 16 goals and 10 assists in all competitions for Borussia Dortmund and two goals for Germany at Euro 2024, helping them get to the quarter-finals.
West Ham likes to have a strong striker who can throw their weight around and cause issues for even the most physical centre-backs. Fullkrug can do this and has the goal record to back up why they signed him.
This injury has been a huge blow for both player and club, but if giving him more time to recover, they’ll get a powerful and dominant striker who ranked in the 81st percentile for aerial wins over the last year.
He can use these skills to hold up play and allow Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus to bomb down the wings and attack the opponent’s box.
There’s still plenty of time for Fullkrug to show fans why he is worth the transfer fee. Just give him time.
