West Ham United Boss Manuel Pellegrini Reveals Frustrating Injury Setback for Fan Favourite
Speaking to the media ahead of West Ham's trip to AFC Wimbledon in the Carabao Cup tonight, Manuel Pellegrini has revealed that Michail Antonio has suffered an injury setback.
Substituted after 63 minutes in the loss to Arsenal on Saturday, the Irons' Englishman is to sit on the sidelines for a foreseeable future. Luckily however, it is not a return of the reoccurring hamstring problem which curtailed his previous campaign.
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West Ham's official website reports their coach as saying: "Michail played the first game and he didn’t play the second because he had played the full 90 minutes and it was his first game after six months on from his surgery, so he couldn’t continue playing every game.
"We rested him and that way he could work better during the week and could be ready to play this game. Unfortunately for him, he has a slight problem in his ankle and that is why he did not complete the game, but he played very well."
It has been a bitty start for Antonio, who played in the Premier League opener — a 4-0 humbling at the hands of Liverpool — before being surprisingly dropped for the match against Bournemouth.
Lively against Arsenal, this is not the news the Hammers man will have hoped for. Troubled with injuries throughout his career, Antonio will have his fingers crossed that this ankle issue can be resolved quickly.
Fortuitously for the winger, international action is just around the corner, meaning he will feasibly miss only one or two Premier League outings. Wanting to challenge new signings Andriy Yarmolenko and Felipe Anderson for a starting spot, Antonio will need to prove himself an asset.
