West Ham head coach Julen Lopetegui has sensationally admitted that he does not know when Niclas Fullkrug will return to the team.
The £27m striker was injured in September while on international duty with Germany and hasn’t been seen since. What was initially believed to be a relatively minor injury has now led Fullkrug to make two trips back to his homeland in an effort to secure a diagnosis and treatment.
This raises the possibility that West Ham’s big signing from Dortmund may never make a starting appearance under Lopetegui, especially if the Hammers’ head coach loses to Everton.
Reports that Fullkrug would not return until December are now looking frighteningly accurate. This timeline, however, may be too late for Lopetegui, who admitted he knows very little about the player’s recovery: “Fullkrug is out. He is working with us, but he will unfortunately be unavailable. We have Kudus and Alvarez out after their red cards, but we will have to assess the rest of the squad.”
“I don’t know how long Fullkrug will be out. He started with a small injury, but it has become more complicated,” Lopetegui told the assembled press. “He will be out for the next two or three weeks, but I don’t know exactly. It depends on how he responds to treatment, so we’ll see.”
