Complications abound when players get injured whilst on loan: Do they stay at their temporary new found home – especially if the new club has an option to buy – or return to their ‘parent’ club for treatment, often where they no longer feel ‘at home’ or part of the set up.
When that player is an important component of their national side’s World Cup hopes, then the situation becomes really tangled with almost a three way battle going on between club, country and loan side, all seeking to look after their own vested interests.
Such is the situation with West Ham’s on loan Edson Alvarez: As we wrote yesterday, ‘El Machin’ has a long term ankle injury which has regressed twice as he’s failed to return to action for Turkish side Fenerbahce.
The prospect of surgery ahead of the World Cup has, according to Turkish news site star.com.tr caused something akin to panic in Mexico:
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“Edson Alvarez crisis in Mexico”..
“The possibility of Edson Alvarez’s surgery caused outrage in Mexico. According to the news in the country’s press, the Mexican National Team sent experts to closely examine Edson Alvarezi’s condition and prevent surgery:
While it was reminded that the decision of the Mexican star whether to have surgery or not belonged to West Ham, it was said that the national team officials were sure that there would be no need for an operation because it was an ankle injury.”
Evidently there’s a huge ‘club versus country’ crisis brewing whereby Alvarez’ national team refute the need for surgery and West Ham will likely be caught in the middle, having the final say on their player’s future. Which will of course have huge repercussions for the Mexican national side in this summer’s World Cup if their captain and talisman is not fit.
West Ham of course will simply do the best to protect the value of their asset and will not want Alvarez risking permanent injury by playing through pain: A club vs country crisis looms at a time when West Ham have quite enough on their plate as it is.