West Ham teenager George Earthy was taken to hospital after suffering a horror head injury just two minutes into his Premier League debut.
The 19-year-old had just come on as a substitute when he collided with team-mate Edson Alvarez in the middle of the field.
Earthy fell to the ground awkwardly and appeared to have been knocked out cold, sparking worrying scenes as medics and team-mates rushed to help the stricken youngster.
West Ham United can confirm George Earthy will undergo an assessment in a London hospital this evening following the incident which saw him stretchered off during today’s Premier League fixture against Fulham.
The midfielder – who entered the field as a second half substitute to… pic.twitter.com/oTgAsTzKj3
— West Ham United (@WestHam) April 14, 2024
After receiving treatment for eight minutes, Earthy was carried off on a stretcher. He was conscious when he was taken out of the London Stadium in an ambulance around 20 minutes after full-time.
The Hammers said: “West Ham United can confirm George Earthy will undergo an assessment in a London hospital this evening following the incident which saw him stretchered off during today’s Premier League fixture against Fulham.
“The midfielder – who entered the field as a second half substitute to make his Premier League debut against the Cottagers – was taken off in stoppage time.”
Manager David Moyes said: “I am really disappointed for George. He has been doing really well in training, done really well for the Under-21s.
“He started well with the ball, had some really nice touches. He is fine. It is a head knock. He is awake and has gone to hospital, we think he is OK at the moment. We all thought he had been knocked out but I don’t know any more.”
The incident overshadowed a 2-0 victory for Fulham courtesy of two goals from Andreas Pereira.
It was a second blow to West Ham’s European hopes in the space of four days, following Thursday night’s 2-0 Europa League first-leg defeat at Bayer Leverkusen, as a win would have lifted them to sixth.
“I thought we started well and should have been one or two goals up before they scored,” added Moyes.
“We were caught out by a long ball, we didn’t deal with it well. And we missed some opportunities to score as well. I think we dominated possession, kept the ball and passed it quite well. But we got done on the counter-attack.
“I’m gutted, today was a great chance to go sixth with five games to go, what a great position to be in.”
For Fulham it was a first win in four matches, and a first at West Ham since 2001.
Boss Marco Silva said: “Great win for us, well played from ourselves and to be honest we deserved the three points.
“West Ham had a good chance to score but after that, we scored the first goal and started to control the game. Overall we scored twice but created more chances to score as well.
“I think we were solid, compact and kept our concentration. We should have scored more goals to be even more comfortable.”
