West Ham United suffer fresh injury blow ahead of FA Cup clash v Manchester United
West Ham have suffered fresh injury blows ahead of their FA Cup clash against Manchester United on Wednesday (1 March), as confirmed by David Moyes.
Right-back Vladimir Coufal has picked up a heel injury while Lukasz Fabianski suffered a nasty-looking eye problem on Saturday (25 February) as the Hammers won 4-0 against Nottingham Forest.
Coufal came off at halftime for Aaron Cresswell, while Fabianski was replaced by Alphonse Areola.
Lucas Paqueta also appeared to have hurt his shoulders in the second half, but he managed to continue until the 83rd minute.
“Vladimir Coufal has got a bit of a heel injury, he’s been feeling a bit on his heel but I didn’t think it was quite that bad, but he had to come off with it at half-time,” said Moyes, as quoted by Football London.
“You’ve probably seen Lukasz’s eye is quite bad, I think we’re more worried about his eye socket area, that sort of thing.
“I’ve had a look, he [Fabianski] seems okay. Obviously it’s come up very quickly and it’s black and blue.
“[Lucas] Paqueta went down with his shoulder where he’s had the problems, so I sort of thought ‘oh, here we go again.’ He seemed to come through it quite well and did a lot of good things and things we really like.”
Manageable
Let’s hope the injuries are not too serious, and they can recover quickly.
The Hammers will head into the FA Cup game with loads of confidence after beating Forest 4-0 in the Premier League on Saturday.
Danny Ings scored twice, while Declan Rice and Michail Antonio added the other two goals.
It will be interesting to see how Moyes approaches the cup game. At the moment, the Hammers need to focus on the Premier League, with every point vital for their survival.
The cup tie comes as a distraction here, but it presents Moyes with the option to shuffle the pack. Players like Maxwell Cornet and Gianluca Scamacca who have recently returned from injuries could be used against the Red Devils.
Areola is a fantastic goalkeeper and he has mainly played in cup games. He started in all six Conference League games and should feature in the FA Cup tie.
Coufal has looked good in recent games, but the Hammers do have options if he misses out.