West Ham manager Nuno Espírito Santo has given an update on the fitness of striker Pablo Felipe during his press conference ahead of Saturday’s game against Liverpool.
Pablo has not been seen since he limped to the final whistle as a substitute in the Hammers’ win against relegation rivals Burnley. It was initially believed the January signing would miss the remainder of the season. However, Claret & Hugh were told “he’ll return before that” by a club source.
Last week, Nuno reported that Pablo was further along in his recovery than first thought but, in today’s presser, revealed that the £20m man is not yet training with his team-mates.
Pablo talks to Taty Castellanos before West Ham's game against Chelsea
West Ham striker Pablo is making steady progress according to Nuno
Individual Programme Underway
“He hasn’t rejoined the group yet. He’s starting his individual programme now and is improving day by day. As I’ve said before, we’ll keep assessing him and see when he’s ready to return. It all depends on how he adapts to the load again. Hopefully it won’t be too long — we miss him.”
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It means perhaps a few of us (myself included) got our hopes up following last week’s update from Nuno.
Because from what I can gather — from a manager clearly keeping his cards close to his chest — Pablo is still undergoing physiotherapy rather than full training.
Hopefully he is back sooner rather than later, because the West Ham bench is seriously lacking in the attacking department.