Niclas Fullkrug to be prolific for West Ham next season amid injury update

The £27million man was set for his first crack at the Premier League, and despite scoring in three of the four games this season when he has played any longer than 68 minutes for West Ham or Germany, the fact it has only come on four occasions itself speaks

Fullkrug was signed as part of the lavish spending spree of last summer, but has not been one of the success stories as the season approaches the business end – through no fault of his own.

Both in the Bundesliga and on the international stage, Fullkrug developed later than most into a tremendous frontman, almost a throwback to the traditional target men of a bygone era.

The sense was always that if you could play to Fullkrug’s strengths, the 32-year-old would deliver with regular goals and be a nightmare opponent for more modern centre-halves.

There are so many people who would take such satisfaction – even neutrals – from the bulldozing German to just completely tear through a top-six possession-based backline with his physical prowess and bag a hat-trick. A victory for ‘real’ football it may smugly seem.

Dr Rajpal Brar told West Ham Zone earlier this week that Fullkrug would be anticipated to play some bounce matches in the coming weeks to help get him up to speed, potentially to play some part as the season winds down.

Brar described Fullkrug’s absence as defining a “Grade 3 – very significant muscular injury” to his hamstring – which if it doesn’t settle when the forward edges back into action, could require surgery.

With no buy option on the loan deal to sign Evan Ferguson in the January transfer window, it looks as if Graham Potter reunited with the Irishman to whom he gave his professional debut as cover.

Perhaps if West Ham hadn’t splurged a net spend exceeding £80million last