Yarmolenko injury provides motivation for Hammers

Robert Snodgrass has told the official West Ham website the team wants to win for injured winger Andriy Yarmolenko; after the Ukraine international suffered a significant Achilles injury in last week’s loss to Tottenham.

Yarmolenko posted on social media to update fans on a successful surgery and express appreciation for their support. Snodgrass wants the players to show solidarity in Saturday evening’s clash with Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.

“Yarmo has got a good family and friends around him, he’ll have the support of his teammates and the fans so everybody is wishing him a speedy recovery and we’re all there for him.”

“I spoke to Yarmo and told him I was out for 16 months and the biggest thing you need to do is not let it be any fault of your own if you don’t come back to the same level; let the injury be the problem, not you because you’ve not been professional coming back from an injury.

“It’s one of the toughest moments of your life so I just said to Yarmo, you’ll come back stronger because it’s the type of character he is – he’s a top lad.

“It’s important we all rally around him and give him the support he needs because it’s a big injury and he’ll need to be careful in his approach coming back, because the biggest thing in being a professional is you don’t want to try and push yourself too quick, because that’s when the injury reoccurs.

“He’s in good hands, we’ve got a good medical team here, good lads to show him support and give him everything he needs, so we’ll be there for him.”

Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

With the long-term injuries to Yarmolenko and Manuel Lanzini, Snodgrass is likely to see an increase in playing time.

“We’ll be going there to try and win the game – playing the right way again,” he said. “After the Spurs game I said we could have sat back in a 4-5-1 against a top-four side, but I don’t think that’s the way the players want to play here.

“If you bring in £100 million worth of talent, you want to go and express yourself and try and play and that’s the way the manager wants to do it and it will be no different Saturday.

“They’re a very good team, Leicester – they’ve got some good players who’ve been about the PL for a few years now so it will be a tough game.”