Virus hits two West Ham United players ahead of clash v Manchester United – ExWHUemployee
West Ham are facing several players taking late fitness tests after the bug that struck down three against Manchester City worked through the squad.
Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek and Nayef Aguerd were all sent home from the team hotel on the day of the game in midweek due to a virus that was going around.
However according to ExWHUemployee on his Patreon page (7 May) while those three players have recovered in time to feature against Manchester United, the virus has worked through the squad and others are suffering and are therefore doubts for the game.
“West Ham welcome back the three players who suffered from a virus in the week and missed the Manchester City game. Those players were Declan Rice, Nayef Aguerd and Tomas Soucek,” he wrote.
“West Ham fans love a conspiracy theory and many are convinced the bug in the week was staged to rest the players and will not hear otherwise. However we can confirm it is legit and two further players have since gone down with it.
“The club will do late tests on a couple of players before kick off today as a result and will therefore delay announcing the final team till the final minutes.
“Vladimir Coufal has been ruled out of the game after feeling his hamstring against Manchester City. The club hope to have him back soon but he will not be risked today.”
Pain
We’ve moved away from the immediate battle for danger but if we keep failing to pick up points then we will be sucked right back into the relegation scrap in the final weeks.
Having Rice, Soucek and Aguerd available again will obviously be a boost, but without knowing which players are now affected by the virus it’s hard to know how much weaker we will be.
Late fitness tests and a late team selection mean preparation won’t have been ideal either, and with Manchester United licking their wounds after their defeat to Brighton in midweek we’ll have to be at our best.
A European semi-final is upon us this week too, meaning we will need these players to come back to 100% health and fitness but also to not spread it to even more people.
It’s not the best news but we have enough quality in our squad to still cause them problems and come away with a positive result.