West Ham United striker Niclas Füllkrug has reached an agreement with manager Julen Lopetegui to stagger his return to the first team so they can get the best out of him.
SportBILD cover the situation today and how only 63 minutes of action for the West Ham summer signing isn’t actually nothing to be concerned about.
The newspaper explains that Füllkrug’s start to life at West Ham since moving from Borussia Dortmund in the summer has not gone ‘according to plan’.
He has been absent for four weeks due to an Achilles tendon irritation and missed four Premier League games to date. That injury was suffered while he was with Germany in the first half of September.
He’s only managed three short Premier League appearances to date totalling 63 minutes before the injury. That was because he was behind on his training schedule due to his participation in Euro 2024 and the fact he was granted a ‘special holiday’ before he moved to England.
The situation isn’t great and has led to a ‘consultation’ with West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui and a new plan has been drawn up. Füllkrug will now be ‘slowly introduced’ to the team and a ‘maximum load’ over 90 minutes.
West Ham want Füllkrug to be the leader in their team and hope he will be fit again after the October international break but also need to avoid further injuries.
So, the plan appears to be to integrate him slowly into the team to get him fully fit and firing after this international break.
