After a Premier League season riddled with injury issues, West Ham United striker Niclas Fullkrug is just about the last man who will find pleasure in others’ misfortune.
Yet, while the man himself is unlikely to admit it, the news coming out of his native Germany this week may prove to be a timely, two-fold boost in the ailing career of the £27 million former Borussia Dortmund targetman.
A boost not only to Niclas Fullkrug’s hopes of a better second season at West Ham United, but also for his chances of reclaiming a spot in Julian Nagelsmann’s Nationalmannschaft ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
Fullkrug insists he plans to stay at West Ham and right the wrongs of a miserable debut campaign. As things stand – Michail Antonio may be leaving, Danny Ings is most certainly gone, and Evan Ferguson will return to Brighton – the late-blooming 32-year-old could very well be Graham Potter’s only senior centre-forward at the beginning of July.
That is, of course, unless The Hammers sign a new number nine before then. And this is where Tim Kleindienst came in.
Or, at least, he was supposed to.
Tim Kleindienst to West Ham United is surely off the cards
West Ham were linked with a £30 million deal for Tim Kleindienst earlier in May.
Another 6ft-something centre-forward who established himself as a regular Bundesliga goalscorer relatively late in his career, Kleindienst replaced Fullkrug as Germany’s go-to striking option last year. And, with The Hammers allegedly interested, the Borussia Monchengladbach poacher could conceivably have done the same at the London Stadium.
But, while Fullkrug missed large portions of 2024/25 through injury, a serious knee issue may now consign Kleindienst to the sidelines for a decent chunk of the next campaign.
As Bild put it, the former Heidenheim talisman has suffered a ‘horror’ knee injury last weekend. An injury which will not only keep him out for the foreseeable future, but one which may also put his involvement in the North American World Cup into question.
“Unfortunately, I have to inform you that I have to undergo surgery due to a knee problem and will therefore be unavailable for the next few months,” a dejected Kleindienst wrote on social media. “It’s extremely frustrating, but unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do about it.
“I will do everything I can to be back as soon as possible. As the saying goes; ‘come back stronger’. From now on, it’s time to look forward and work for [my return].”
Bundesliga ace faces months on the sidelines with knee injury
As medical experts HSS explain, a full recovery from a meniscus tear can take somewhere in the region of six to nine months.
As such, a striker with 16 goals from 32 appearances this season may already be facing a race against time if he is to return to the pitch before the New Year.
It goes without saying, then, that West Ham are unlikely to be making a move. Even the Hammers – a club whose record when signing centre-forwards is pretty poor, to say the least – are not foolish enough to invest a sizeable sum on a soon-to-be 30-year-old striker facing months out of action with a knee injury.
And, after Kleindienst took full advantage of Fullkrug’s fitness issues to establish himself as Julian Nagelsmann’s go-to number nine, perhaps it is time for the latter to return the favour.
