**As West Ham’s FA Cup quarter-final looms, the question on everyone’s lips, including the opposition, is, will Crysencio Summerville be fit for the match?**
If any team knows about the danger Crysencio Summerville can cause a team its Leeds United, he spent four years with the Whites, and the fans still have a lot of admiration for the Dutchman.
However, they will be hoping they don’t need to admire his skills tomorrow afternoon because he may well still be missing for the match.
After he pulled up injured in the last round of the FA Cup vs Brentford, we all feared the worst. However, we were relieved as he was only ruled out for ‘a week’.
I think everyone thought that was optimistic, and when the Villa match came around, a lot of Hammers knew Summerville wasn’t going to be there.
However, two weeks later, post international break, we still aren’t sure if he is going to be fit enough to start this match, which is worrying.
If we had to put a number on it, the former Feyenoord academy man is probably 80% fit and ready for this match. The talking point amongst the Hammers faithful is, if that’s the case, and he’s not 100% fit, would you risk him?
My answer to this would be no, if he isn’t fully fit, then don’t play him from the start. This is a really important game; we want to make it to Wembley desperately. But what we need even more crucially is Premier League survival.
If he is 80%, I’d have him on the bench, bring him on for the last ten minutes, use him as a safety net, if we need a goal, bring him on, but I’d really hope we can beat an out-of-form Leeds side without him anyway.
If he’s any less than 80%, we shouldn’t take the risk, because keeping him fit for the run-in has to be the priority for Nuno Espirito Santo.