The injury jinx has hit West Ham again with uncertainty on a return date for Niclas Fullkrug.
This prompted me to look back over the years at some of the players that spent more time with the medical staff than the first team.
The year is 1993 and West Ham have bought a 6ft centre back from Charlton Athletic, Simon Webster who notched up 124 appearances for the Addicks over three years. Within weeks of joining the Hammers, he broke his leg in two places following a freak training ground injury, and subsequently only made five appearances in two years, and was loaned out before ending his career at St Albans.
Fast forward to 1996, and another centre back, Richard Hall joins West Ham from Southampton in a £1.4m deal, having clocked over 120 appearances for the Saints. An injury in pre-season means he makes his debut in April 1997 and only made another six appearances in the next two years for the club before retiring.
Dean Ashton joined West Ham in 2006, and made an impressive start to his West Ham career. A natural goal scorer, which led to international recognition and sadly the end of his career when he suffered a broken ankle in August 2006 while on England duty. This caused him to miss the whole season. Sadly the remainder of his West Ham career was fraught with injuries though he did make 35 appearances in the 2007-08 season scoring 11 goals. In 2009 he retired after failing to recover from a long term ankle injury.
In 2007 Kieran Dyer joined West Ham from Newcastle United appearing only thirty times over four years. Ten days after making his debut he is stretchered off the pitch with his right leg broken in two places. Further injuries blighted his career at Upton Park, with a report in the Daily Telegraph suggesting he cost West Ham around £450k for every game he played in!
Fullkrug in good company with injury
Andy Carroll originally joined West Ham on loan from Liverpool in 2012 and subsequently signed a long term contract in 2013, and left the club in 2019. He spent alot of time in the physio room – heel problem, ankle ligament injury, tear in his medial ligament on the side of his knee , groin injury, ankle surgery – the list was endless. During his spell he played 126 league games scoring 33 goals.
The last mention has to go to Jack Wilshere who made 16 league appearances for West Ham between 2018-2020. For much of his time at West Ham he was injured though the player has since said he was fit and ready to play yet wasn’t picked. After a brief spell at Bournemouth and Danish club AFG he retired aged 30.
Let’s hope Fullkrug returns to full fitness soon, otherwise there will be questions around the medical staff at West Ham.
The longest he has been injured previously was 266 days with a cruciate ligament tear in 2019/2020, and was out for 157 days the previous season with cartilage damage, missing 22 games. These stats are quite alarming, it also should be noted he missed 33 games in 2012/13 with cartilage damage.
