Angelo Ogbonna could miss the rest of West Ham United’s Premier League season after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Talk about your worst fears being realised.
If David Moyes found himself face to face with a Boggart in Professor Lupin’s Defence Against the Dark Arts class, the pesky little creature would take the shape of West Ham’s star centre-back splayed on a treatment table, a pained grimace etched on his face.
Ogbonna has been one of the first names on Moyes’ team-sheet since the veteran Scot returned for a second spell at the London Stadium in December 2019, playing arguably the best football of his career under the former Manchester United and Everton boss.
Can West Ham United survive without Angelo Ogbonna?
The Guardian suggest that Ogbonna could miss the rest of this season.
Should an operation be required, the 33-year-old former Italy international may be out of action for nine long months.
But does that mean we can pull down the shutters on West Ham’s season, just days after a 3-2 victory over Liverpool lifted the high-flying Hammers to within touching distance of Chelsea at the top of the Premier League table?
Well, not quite.
Ogbonna has started all 11 of West Ham’s games so far this term but did miss 10 matches across the 2020/21 campaign.
And the good news is that West Ham won six of those, beating Tottenham, Leeds United and Leicester City along the way.
Going all the way back to Moyes’ appointment at the end of 2019, West Ham have won 25 of 56 league games with Ogbonna in their starting XI (44 per cent).
Their record without him, however, is actually better; six wins in 12 making a 50 per cent win rate.
West Ham have also conceded 1.3 goals per game with Ogbonna during Moyes’ second spell. Without him, it is the same – 1.3 per 90 minutes.
Issa Diop produced some of his finest Hammers performances during Ogbonna’s absence with an ankle injury during the spring of 2021, while Craig Dawson and Kurt Zouma have also shown they can be relied upon in big games.
All is not lost, then, for David Moyes and West Ham.
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