Injury expert Ben Dinnery suggests that West Ham’s right-back, Vladimir Coufal, could face an extended period on the sidelines and might need surgery after sustaining a heel injury, writes the WHZ.
Ahead of the Hammers’ recent UEFA Europa League Conference victory over AEK Larnaca, manager David Moyes revealed that the Czech international had been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis in his heel.
Dinnery notes that the condition can be difficult to predict in terms of recovery time and that Coufal may be out of action for weeks or even months.
As plantar fasciitis is a loading issue, conservative treatment is typically the first step, but surgery may be necessary if the player does not respond to this approach.
While Dinnery suggests that over 80% of those with the condition see a positive outcome from conservative treatment, surgery may still be required for those who do not respond well.
“With plantar fasciitis, it is really difficult to put any kind of definitive timeline on it. Potentially, he could be looking at anything from weeks to months.”
“It’s a loading issue, so you have to ease back and have conservative treatment in the first instance. If he doesn’t respond, although most do and I think over 80 per cent would respond favourably, he would even have to go down the surgery route,” – he told the GMS.