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Injury expert: Soucek 'singled out' in West Ham training after 'horrendous' incident
Tomas Soucek will be “singled out” in training at West Ham in order to avoid aggravating his facial injury.
That is according to injury expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in medicine and data analysis.
Salamon Rondon’s studs left Soucek with a gash under his right eye during West Ham’s 1-0 win away at Everton on 17 October.
As quoted by Sky Sports three days later, David Moyes revealed the Czech midfielder required “stitching” and “plastic surgery”.
The Irons boss claimed Soucek, who has missed just one match this season, is fit to play in tonight’s (21 October) Europa League clash with Genk.
But Dinnery suggests West Ham will take as few risks as possible with the 26-year-old in training.
“He will likely be doing no-contact work,” he told Football Insider correspondent Adam Williams.
“When a player needs to be protected, they might be singled out by wearing a different colour bib.
“That signals to his teammates that you need be a little bit wary when you challenge for the ball.
“There isn’t as much heading in training nowadays. But they’ll try and avoid any coming together that might risk a collision around that facial area.
“He was very lucky. He had a cut above the nose and below the eye. If it had been an inch higher then it could have been a lot more sinister.
“Fortunately, it is just a cosmetic injury even though the incident itself was pretty horrendous.”
In other news, pundit claims “something’s not right” with Michail Antonio after West Ham club doctor update.