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Kevin De Bruyne cited as West Ham suffer from latest injury blow - expert
West Ham are experiencing something very similar to Manchester City and Kevin De Bruyne after Nayef Aguerd attempted to fight through injury at the World Cup.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and spoke exclusively to Football Insider about the effect of Aguerd’s World Cup efforts.
Aguerd was a major part of the Morocco team that managed to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time in their nation’s history this winter.
But the 26-year-old didn’t achieve it without sacrifice, including his attempt to play in the semi-finals against France before he was withdrawn from the starting lineup just minutes before kick-off.
As quoted by the Irish Times (December 15), Morocco manager Walid Regragui insists he has “no regrets” over his handling of Aguerd despite potentially worsening his injury and adding to his recovery timelines.
Dinnery sees many similarities to the situation facing Manchester City after Kevin De Bruyne’s injury for Belgium in the European Championships.
“It’s difficult. If you look at that Morocco squad in the World Cup there were multiple players fighting through injury,” the injury expert told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“Romain Saiss was patched up and put through a hamstring problem. Sofyan Amrabat was receiving lower back injections, but it’s the biggest stage in football and they are all going to do whatever they can to be a part of their nation’s success.
“As for Aguerd, we saw a similar thing post-Euros with Kevin De Bruyne, who picked up an ankle injury with Belgium in the quarter-finals.
“He was strapped up and tried to play the next game but ultimately it was Manchester City who had to live with that decision as he was then ruled out for the next month.
“So there is an element of that with Aguerd and it’s difficult as players want to play huge games in tournaments. The player is in the here and now but West Ham and David Moyes will be looking to protect the player and want him to play for the remainder of the season.
“Morocco also didn’t have the luxury of depth in the World Cup, while Moyes has Thilo Kehrer, Craig Dawson, hopefully Kurt Zouma isn’t far off and Angelo Ogbonna is also back fit.
“Moyes does have plenty of flexibility when it comes to managing Aguerd a bit better.“
In other news, Gabby Agbonlahor delivers his latest verdict on Declan Rice transfer rumours