Niclas Fullkrug’s West Ham nightmare could be over as he finally scored his first goal at the London Stadium against Brentford on Saturday.

Fullkrug has had a torrid time in East London so far, all due to his injury struggles. The German has only managed to start 4 times and make 15 appearances in all competitions due to achillies and hamstring injuries which ruled him out for more than 20 matches.

The Hammers took a big gamble in laying out over £20m for a 31-year-old striker that had never played in the Premier League before and had suffered injury problems in the past. And that gamble hasn’t paid off yet, however, with the big German looking good off the bench in the last couple of games, he has the opportunity to turn it around.

Fullkrug scored the equaliser against Bournemouth just seven minutes after coming off the bench as he excellently headed in a corner from James Ward-Prowse.

“It’s not about me, but I’m very happy to have scored in front of our home crowd,” Füllkrug said.

“I was waiting for that moment for eight months, to score here in the stadium. It hasn’t been the best season for me – I’ve been injured and out for a long time – so today I was really happy to feel the love from the crowd.

“I felt strong, but it’s not about me. It’s the job of a substitute to bring new energy and give the team a different option, because we needed a different dynamic in the game.

“We needed another option for our players further back to knock it forward, and after that we created a lot of chances, so I am happy with my impact and with how the team reacted to my substitution. The whole team tried to use me and bring me into position, which was good.”