Soucek shrugs off plastic surgery to repair facial cuts and targets immediate return
Tomas Soucek, the West Ham United midfielder, has undergone plastic surgery to repair the facial injury he suffered against Everton last Sunday.
Soucek was accidentally struck in the face by Salomon Rondon’s studs, leaving him with severe cuts around his eye, lip and nose.
The Czech Republic midfielder said after the game that it was “great to add to my collection” of stitches. He is available for tonight’s Europa League match against Genk, despite a trip to the plastic surgeon.
“Tomas wants to play,” said David Moyes, the West Ham manager. “He has had his lip stitched and he got it done by a plastic surgeon on Tuesday because it was stitched up after the game. Now it has been redone. He has also had a couple of stitches on his cheek, and he has had a couple on his nose, in between his eyebrows. He is fine. I said to him, ‘Look at my eyebrows, Tomas. My eyebrows have been stitched up from my years of being a centre-half and getting cut’. He has to get a few more stitches before he gets to this level.”
Meanwhile, Moyes has warned of the mental health issues that can affect managers, following Steve Bruce’s admission that it was “very, very tough” to be consistently abused as Newcastle manager.
“I have been called lots of things,” Moyes said. “I have had periods in my career where it has been bad and still, in many places you go, it is difficult. There are a lot of mental health issues which come from being a football manager, I have to say. Football managers are no different to other human beings who work in other industries, in other roles, but maybe we are not treated the same because it is seen as fair game that football managers can be called out or publicly talked about.”
None of the outfield players who started for Tottenham Hotspur against Newcastle United have made the trip to play against Vitesse Arnhem in the Europa Conference League, although Nuno Espirito Santo has dismissed the suggestion that he has two teams within his squad.
Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Tanguy Ndombele are among those to remain in London instead of travelling to Holland, with coach Ian Cathro also staying in England to help them prepare for Sunday’s match against West Ham, with Tottenham top of their Europa Conference League group.
Asked if it was fair to say he now had one group of players for European football and one for the Premier League, Nuno said: “No, it is not fair to say. It is a situation we decided for this specific week. We considered that it is the best way to go and compete well tomorrow and compete well on Sunday.”