David Moyes admits Vladimir Coufal has ‘struggled for a long time’ after West Ham United confirmed the defender underwent surgery on a groin injury, via quotes by football.london.
Coufal had a successful operation on Thursday to fix an issue that he had carried for some time. He has already begun rehabilitating at the Hammers’ Rush Green training ground but is likely to miss a few weeks. He joins Angelo Ogbonna and Arthur Masuaku out of action.
The Czech Republic full-back had played through the issue but missed the Irons’ 1-1 draw with Newcastle United. The London Stadium affair was the first Premier League fixture Coufal had sat out since West Ham lost at Wolves in November, starting 12 of their next 13.
Moyes admits West Ham star Vladimir Coufal has ‘struggled for a long time’
Moyes admits Coufal’s injury has played a part in the 29-year-old struggling for form during West Ham’s recent games. The £5.5m dynamo was massively off the pace in his last outing at Leicester City up against Harvey Barnes, forcing Moyes to take him off after 67-minutes.
“We think it is part of it,” Moyes said. “He has struggled for a long time. The international players have a lot of games, the Euros and all the games last year and the quickness of the games and this year too, it can take its toll and unfortunately Vladimir could not carry on.”
Barnes ran rings around Coufal on numerous occasions and he was also often wasteful on the ball. The West Ham star was also off his usual pace going forward against Watford the week before. So, Moyes will hope a bit of rest through injury will do Coufal a lot of good.
In the meantime, Moyes will hope Ben Johnson suitably fills in for Coufal when West Ham host Wolves on Sunday. Ryan Fredericks had replaced the former Slavia Prague star against Newcastle, but picked up a groin strain that could now threaten his place in their line-up.
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