Saturday saw the Hammers bring the curtain down on our home campaign for another year, and manager Manuel Pellegrini marked the occasion by handing Jack Wilshere his longest outing since September.
Wilshere excelled in his brief cameo at the weekend when he marked his long-awaited return from injury, too, most notably by playing a part in Ryan Fredericks’ maiden Premier League goal at the club.
The former Arsenal ace moved the ball on in the middle of the pitch to Mark Noble, before drifting into a pocket of space to play a delicate one-two with Fredericks, that pulled Southampton’s Jack Stephens a few yards out of position to open a more direct route to goal for our right-back.
It was, however, only Wilshere’s seventh appearance of the season, as the 27-year-old has endured yet another campaign ravished by injuries, which have restricted the Englishman to just 366 minutes of action.
His latest stint away from the first-team also happened to be the third-longest period the former international has spent on the sidelines since becoming a senior professional in 2008 – totalling 124 days, and missing 20 games.
Now back fit, the £13.5million-rated ace is intent on doing all he can to prevent further blows and be able to give West Ham more next season, even if he expects more injuries will inevitably be on their way.
“It’s been a frustrating year, but I wanted to get back before the end of the season to get some minutes and confidence going into pre-season, so it feels good,” Wilshere said, as per the club’s official website.
“Injuries can happen at any point. I’m not naïve enough to think that is the end of my injury problems, but I will do everything I can to avoid them with strength and rehab work.
“I’ve worked so hard to get to this point, it’s a big off-season for me because I’m now quite fit and I don’t want to go away and come back and start again. So I have to do some work in the summer. I’m confident in my body. This injury just took its time to heal. I’m confident I can play far more games next season.
“I’ve been training for a while, but training and playing games is a completely different type of fitness. I know from previous injuries that when you are back to training you are not there. You have to work hard to get to the level [of the] players [that] are playing. I’ve done that by working hard, but this is just another step. I had ten minutes a couple of weeks ago, now I have got 25, and I want to get even more next week [against Watford] and push on.
“It will be a summer of work for me. I’ve worked so hard to get to this level, and I want to maintain that, getting back to pre-season where I have left off. I don’t want to lose my fitness, so I have to work through the summer.
“It is important you have a manager who has faith in you, and trusts you, and he [Pellegrini] certainly does that. He’s been nothing but good for me. He’s always been in contact and believes in me. That gives me confidence and trust. I know he likes me as a player, and if I stay fit and work hard, I will get minutes. He’s been brilliant for me.”
