Expert issues bold Ivan Toney-West Ham claim after analysing ‘video footage’
Ivan Toney’s injury at Brentford is not as bad as initially feared and the striker should be back fit for their FA Cup clash against West Ham on Saturday.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in injury and data analysis, speaking exclusively to Football Insider.
Toney was stretchered off late into Brentford’s win over West Ham last week, and it initially looked as though the 26-year-old could be facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
However, Thomas Frank offered a positive update on the striker’s fitness on Sunday (1 January), suggesting that it was “not significant”.
Toney missed out on his side’s impressive 3-1 win over Liverpool on Monday night, but it seems he is inching closer to a first-team return much sooner than expected.
Dinnery believes Toney will be available as soon as Saturday for Brentford’s FA Cup clash against West Ham, but admitted that Frank may not want to risk starting him.
“Certainly the incident itself looked fairly innocuous,” Dinnery told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“You couldn’t quite make out from the video footage what had happened.
“There was obvious concerns that there was some kind of knee problem, and potentially that there was ligament damage involved in that, but Thomas Frank cleared up after their evaluation that it wasn’t the case.
“It’s turned out to be more of a muscle-related problem, which is obviously good news in that respect.
“Unfortunately, the Liverpool game just came around just a little bit too quick in terms of getting him ready and out there.
“He should be in and around that squad for the F.A cup if Thomas Frank wants to take that chance.“
In other news, Brentford star Aaron Pressley set for January switch to League One outfit