Italy international Gianluca Scamacca is struggling with a knee injury and hasn’t played with West Ham since January 14.
The 24-year-old joined the Hammers from Sassuolo for €36m last summer and has scored seven goals in 24 games across all competitions this season.
He missed the last four Premier League matches due to a knee injury and was on the bench against Tottenham last weekend although he only warmed up on the sidelines and was eventually not introduced by David Moyes.
“Scamacca has adapted quickly to the Premier League thanks to his humility and dedication to work,” the Scottish coach said in October, as quoted by Gazzetta.
“Now he can see things that he could not see before, he has adapted and knows what to do. We’ve signed him thinking about the future and that he can become Italy’s starting striker in five years, but also thinking about the present because he has characteristics we like and he can only improve.”
Scamacca mainly played in Conference League matches at the start of the season, scoring four goals in seven appearances. He had become West Ham’s starting striker before the World Cup break but sustained an injury in the last friendly match ahead of the restart of the season, playing just two games in 2023.
He scored in a 2-2 draw against Leeds United on January 4 and played 15 more minutes coming off the bench against Southampton ten days later.
According to Gazzetta, Scamacca is struggling to recover from his injury despite several injections, but West Ham need him back fit as soon as possible being in the relegation zone, one point below Bournemouth.
Scamacca made his Italy debut in September 2021 but hasn’t yet found the net in 9 appearances with the Azzurri.