Written by: @Samizgould

Several reports have provided a recent update to Xande Silva’s serious illness that has kept him out of pre-season.

He’s been in hospital for three weeks in Portugal undergoing emergency surgery to repair an obstructed bowel from a week before pre-season started. This news has come as a shock and will no doubt have affected Xande and his family because he’s got a bright future in the game and, more importantly, a full and happy life to live. Many people thought that Xande was going to be given a huge opportunity this season to be part of a new strike force and show the touch and deadly finish we’ve been reading about from his performances in the Under23’s.

An article posted a couple of days after the announcement of the Asia Premier League squad expressed genuine surprise that Xande hadn’t been listed, as we were very short on strikers and in the brief appearances he’d made in the first team he looked the part with pace, agility and bit of touch to go with it.

But a few days later ExWHUemployee tweeted that he was seriously ill and that was why he hadn’t been selected for the pre-season tour. It was a genuine error and not the standard we set, and not what we are about, especially when it concerns the health of our player and a part of the West Ham family.

Thankfully it appears that the prognosis is a positive one with a full recovery expected for the Portuguese striker. However, these sorts of conditions aren’t always a quick fix and the club have lined up a 6-week recovery program for him to help get back to full health first and then full fitness as its reported that he’s lost a significant amount of weight after his long stay in hospital.

The effect of this illness on Xande will not have been small, at a time when he will no doubt have been looking forward to the summer as a chance to prove his ability and show the manager he’s ready for the leap to first team regular.

But sometimes life kicks you just to show you there a more important things than football and your health is well and truly one of those. So, from the whole The West Ham Way team, we wish Xande Silva a complete return to health, strength to handle the challenges and a truly happy time ahead; a chance to return to the game he loves will be his priority once he’s recovered and we all hope to see him showing all he’s about on the field in a Claret and Blue shirt with all of us singing his name very, very soon.

COYI