EVEN last month in the midst of the International break, Claret and Hugh’s insider was upbeat about the injury to Crysencio Summerville and Jean Clair Todibo.
““Summerville should be fit for the next game, same as Todibo”, our insider told us as the duo recovered away from the international spotlight. Whether or not Nuno Espirito Santo decides to risk the duo in a ‘vanity’ FA Cup quarter final appearance will depend as much on his ‘steer’ from the boardroom, one would suspect, as on his own plans to stick or twist regarding squad rotation.
Survival being so important to the clubs financial health, you’d expect every one of the ‘suits’ would cheerfully sacrifice a Wembley appearance for remaining in the top flight come May 24th – which could easily see Summerville sit out the Leeds quarter final for ‘the greater good’.
However, as reported in ats.io there’s a third man on whose fitness Nuno will be sweating:
“Centre-back Jean-Clair Todibo pulled out of the warm-up before the 2-0 loss at Aston Villa with a suspected calf issue. Crysencio Summerville, their most dangerous attacking player, has missed the last 2 matches with a calf problem and his involvement on Sunday is unclear after he was also absent for Netherlands duty.
Injured on international duty: Mavropanos may be required to sit out FA Cup quarter final if concussion diagnosed
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Konstantinos Mavropanos is a concussion doubt after being withdrawn late in Greece’s defeat to Paraguay. That is potentially 3 key players unavailable or significantly limited for a match where West Ham need to show up.”
Mavropanos, who has been a warrior this year when paired alongside Chelsea colossus Axel Disasi, was forced into an early exit from the Greece v Paraguay fixture and was left out of the following game against Hungary, this is after the Greek sustained a couple of nasty facial and head blows in successive Premier League fixtures before the international break.
Concussion protocol – if it is deemed as such – could cause Mavropanos to miss the FA Cup tie against Leeds and raises the very real spectre of out-of-favour Maximilian Kilman being returned to the starting line up. Kilman hasn’t played since the disastrous 3 – 0 loss to Wolves in January.
Now that would be a worry. Fingers crossed Nuno has good news in tomorrow’s press conference regarding the big Greek.