West Ham United take on Bayer Leverkusen in the first-leg of the Europa League quarter-finals on Thursday night.
Unfortunately for West Ham, in-form winger Jarrod Bowen has already been ruled out of the Europa League tie with Leverkusen, due to a bruised spine after picking up an injury against Wolves on Saturday.
In addition to Bowen’s absence, Hammers boss David Moyes will be without the suspended Edson Alvarez for the first-leg, with Alphonse Areola likely to miss out as well through injury.
Despite Bayer Leverkusen’s brilliance this season, West Ham are still a team that can cause them all sorts of problems.
We are currently sitting in seventh spot in the Premier League table, and this current crop of players have already proven that they’re capable of winning things after last year’s Europa Conference League triumph.
However, replicating that success this season in the Europa League will be a huge task…
West Ham risk losing 2 vital players for Leverkusen second-leg
It seems as though suspension problems await the Hammers ahead of the return leg in East London next week.
That really is the last thing we need, after the Bowen injury news emerged earlier this morning.
Two of our very best players are in genuine danger of missing the second-leg clash with the German outfit.
Lucas Paqueta and Emerson Palmieri are teetering on the edge heading into the quarter-final clash with Leverkusen.
According to UEFA, players who receive three yellow cards up until the completion of the quarter-finals will be suspended for one game.
That then resets from the semi-finals onwards. With Paqueta and Emerson both on two bookings so far in the competition, a yellow card out in Germany for either of them would mean that they will miss the return leg at the London Stadium.
West Ham are underdogs against Leverkusen already as it is. The Bundesliga outfit are one of the best sides in Europe, and the challenge that awaits us is an enormously difficult one.
However, if Paqueta and/or Emerson were to miss the second-leg, it really would be a mountain to climb for Moyes’s side.
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