Julen Lopetugui gives update on Michail Antonio’s career future following horror crash

He is expected to be in hospital for a number of weeks

Senior members of the squad have visited the star striker in hospital and Lopetegui believes Antonio will play football again.

The crash which happened in the Essex area last Saturday resulted in Antonio suffering ‘a lower limb fracture’ among other injuries. An Air Ambulance was called and he was rushed to hospital.

The east London side issued an update to fans saying he was ‘conscious and communicating’ as images of his badly damaged silver Ferrari began to circulate online.

It later emerged that Antonio had been trapped in the wreckage for more than 45 minutes with fire crews eventually cutting him free.

Speaking ahead of Monday’s trip to Bournemouth, Lopetegui expressed his confidence that the Hammers’ all-time record Premier League goalscorer would return to the pitch in the future.

He said: “The most important thing is that he’s alive, he’s good. He broke his femur, but he’s going to recover for sure.

“He’s going to need time. It’s about time. Now it’s about time but the good news is that he has time because when you see the car was terrible, the accident, that’s why we are happy.

“Because in the end, despite the fact we are unhappy because we lost one very important player for us, we are happy because he's going to be ready.

“Now he's strong, he's recovered himself in the next month for sure and he's going to be ready to be a player.

“The first thing is to be a man and then to be a player.”

Antonio is expected to be in hospital for a few weeks while he recovers and though there are still question marks over his career, he was well enough to FaceTime his West Ham teammates before their victory over Wolves last week.

Senior members of the squad have visited the star striker in hospital since that win in which the two Goalscorers Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen dedicated their goals to the 34-year-old.