Graham Potter has moved to clarify the truth behind a missing West Ham duo in the wake of increasing speculation.
West Ham have another new injury concern, Graham Potter has confirmed.
It is the latest in a long line of issues Potter has dealt with since taking over in January.
Until shortly before his arrival, West Ham had actually been among the Premier League clubs least affected by injuries.
But the Englishman has been without Michail Antonio, Niclas Fullkrug, Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Crysencio Summerville and Jean-Clair Todibo for varying spells in his three months at the Hammers helm.
West Ham duo’s shock absence sparked conspiracies
It hasn’t made things easy for Potter in terms of getting momentum.
The 49-year-old bemoaned the injuries when explaining the poor display in a 1-0 defeat at Wolves in midweek.
Hammers fans are well used to dismal defeats, though.
There’s been enough of those in the last 19 months.
The biggest shock from the Wolves game was the West Ham teamsheet.
West Ham boss Graham Potter and star Mohammed Kudus.
Credit: Getty Images/Mignott/MB Media/MI News/NurPhoto.
Supporters were shocked when they saw Mohammed Kudus was not in the squad and Todibo was on the bench.
It caused a huge stir among Hammers fans at the game and on social media.
Conspiracy theories started doing the rounds after Kudus was linked with an £84m move to Al-Nassr and Todibo to Man United in the days leading up to the game.
Hammers fans were particularly confused about Todibo given he was named on the bench with the hapless Konstantinos Mavropanos starting in his place.
New West Ham worry as Potter clarifies truth behind missing duo
But the Frenchman did not get on at all despite declaring ahead of the match he was ‘fully fit and ready to play’.
Now West Ham have a new worry as Potter clarifies the truth behind the missing duo amid mega money transfer links.
Speaking ahead of Bournemouth, Potter stated he expects both Kudus and Todibo to be back for the game.
And he has revealed the real reasons for their shock absence at Wolves.
Photo by Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images
“Todibo trained this morning and felt a lot better,” Potter said in his press conference.
“Obviously see how he reacts today and we’ve got another training session tomorrow so there’s a chance he’ll be involved, which will be good for us.
“Obviously he wasn’t available against Wolves.
“Mo had very light training today so we’ll see how he reacts to that and whether he can go in tomorrow. Again he’s got a chance for the weekend.”
Opening up on the issues further, Potter said Kudus was fatigued from Ghana duty.
He added: “It’s like an overload in the hip area (for Kudus), not really an injury, more fatigue. He felt some discomfort earlier on in the week which ruled him out. Felt it was just too soon after the international break to be involved.
“But it’s calmed down quite a lot and if he trains well tomorrow, he’s got a chance.”
Fatigued Kudus and ill Todibo back but teammate has injury
Potter then explained Todibo was ill while also feeling the impact of Ramadan and deteriorated throughout the day, hence not coming off the bench.
“He (Todibo) just felt worse and worse as the day went on,” Potter said.
“He wasn’t able to start, we thought he could help us off the bench but he just started to feel worse so in the end he couldn’t come on. At half-time we spoke to him and he was just deteriorating. We’d have liked him to have started but we couldn’t, he’s just off the back of Ramadan as well.
“We have to take all those things into consideration and in the end he was just too poorly to play.”
Potter also revealed Emerson Palmieri, who impressed when he came on against Wolves, has suffered an injury after making a block tackle.
The West Ham boss said Emerson may have a chance of making it back for Bournemouth but will be checked over and he believes it is ‘nothing too serious’.