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More bad news for West Ham from the treatment room, as Winston Reid becomes latest player to pull out of international duty with injury. Fans were fearing the worst when the New Zealand international had to leave Saturday’s 2-3 defeat to Leicester City after just 18 minutes of play. It is now looking like he will miss a considerate amount of time.
As if the first 15 minutes couldn't go more perfectly for the Hammers, Winston Reid is now done for the day #WHULEI pic.twitter.com/GxR9s9Tnsc
— Brace The Hammer (@BraceTheHammer) March 18, 2017
Reid has been captain of the All Whites since 2013 and has made 20 appearances, scoring one goal during his international career. He impressed the Hammers during the 2010 World Cup and joined the club in August of that year.
Reid received a hip injury during the Leicester game and is expected to miss four to six weeks as a result. One New Zealand website has reported that the player is expected to miss the rest of the season, but this has yet to be confirmed by West Ham.
Reid left the stadium on crutches tonight. pic.twitter.com/78vJ3jCPkN
— Anthony ⚒ Hufton (@AnthonyHufton) March 18, 2017
With the Hammer’s defence already doing poorly, the loss of Reid is a blow that we cannot afford. To make things worse Pedro Obiang is now out for the season; meanwhile Michail Antonio is expected to miss 3-4 weeks with a hamstring injury.
It’s starting to look like a full-blown injury crisis has hit the club; the last thing the team needs after an-already topsy-turvy season.
A top half finish in the Premier League is looking more and more distant as West Ham are now winless in their last five games – suffering back-to-back defeats to Chelsea and Leicester. Of course, many fans are fearing the worst:
Injury news:
— West Ham Central (@WestHam_Central) March 20, 2017
Michail Antonio: three to four weeks.
Winston Reid: four to six weeks.
Pedro Obiang: rest of the season.
Relegation battle.
We won’t get relegated this season, West Ham have a relatively soft schedule coming up, with our next games taking place against Hull City, Arsenal, Swansea City and Sunderland. You’d fancy a couple of wins from that run-in, if this doesn’t happen then maybe we could talk about relegation.
If Reid were to miss four weeks, he could be back in the team for the Sunderland game, in the meantime the players will have to learn to defend without him. Hopefully José Fonte can step up, and show why West Ham paid £8 million for his services. Maybe we could even get our first clean sheet with him on the pitch!