Welcome to Nigel Reo-Coker's latest entry on whufc.com, as the Hammers skipper presents his exclusive online diary...
Monday, March 13
First of all, my apologies for missing a week of my regular column
but I can assure you it would not have made very interesting
reading! I was ill for the entire seven days, with a gastric virus
that left me feeling totally drained and unable to train or play in
the game up at Bolton on Saturday.
I returned to training this morning, still not feeling great, but
with another massive game against Bolton, in the FA Cup on
Wednesday night to look forward to, it was a case of trying to
build my strength back up and hopefully feeling better as time went
on. I did the warm-up with the rest of the lads to ease myself back
into it, but didn't take part in the rest of the training
session.
After lunch, I just headed home and went straight to bed, feeling
very tired. The virus meant I lost a fair bit of weight and, even
though I was over the worse of it, it was still going to take a
fair bit of time to get out of my system.
Tuesday, March 14
With a game tomorrow, I took part in the full training session and
began to feel a little better. We had our team meeting in the
morning and training consisted of some small-sided games and
team-play but, with a few injury doubts in the squad, the gaffer
didn't name the starting line-up yet. I still wasn't
feeling 100% but I felt as though I would be able to play against
Bolton, and so made myself available to play.
With it being the day before a game, I didn't do anything or go
anywhere on Tuesday afternoon, and spent the evening at home,
resting in front of the television and watching Eastenders!
Wednesday, March 15
A midweek home matchday, so we met at Upton Park for around 11am,
then headed off to the Marriott Hotel at Canary Wharf, where we had
lunch, rest and pre-match before coming back to the stadium for the
game.
I don't know what it was like to watch, but it was certainly
tough to play in - as it always is against Bolton. They play with
the extra man in midfield, which kills the space and makes it
difficult to find any rhythm in your game.
I've got to be honest, I was very surprised that I managed to
last 98 minutes or however long it was. I certainly could have done
without extra-time and, as the game wore on, I began to get more
and more tired. I didn't want to come off, but I was struggling
towards the end, and Bolton were throwing everything at us after
Marlon's goal, so Christian came on and his aerial power was a
big factor.
In the end, it was a great team performance to see us through to
the quarter-finals and, although we are facing another tough game
against Manchester City, the boys were really confident in the
dressing-room afterwards. Still, there were no post-match
celebrations. We've got a big game against Portsmouth on
Saturday and, with the way I was feeling after the game, it was
just straight home to bed. Thanks to traffic on the A13, though, I
still didn't get in until 1.30am!
Thursday, March 16
Came into training for a light warm-down session, feeling very
tired and aching all over, so I just did some gentle exercises and
then had a rub from one of our masseurs. Again, after lunch, I went
straight home and stayed there for the rest of the day. I'd
like to say that I went out doing lots of exciting things but
I'd be lying! With the amount of games we are playing this
week, the most important thing is the rest between matches,
especially after being ill. I didn't even manage my regular
visit over to my aunt's house at Elephant and Castle this week!
Friday, March 17
The day before our Premiership home game against Portsmouth, so we
were in training for a team-meeting in the morning and then did the
usual team-plays and small-sided games. With an FA Cup
quarter-final against Manchester City on Monday, it looks like
there will be some changes to the team, although the gaffer has
said that he expects me to play in both matches. As I said to the
lads, that's because I'm a finely-tuned machine! Seriously,
it's not ideal for us to have to play two games in 48 hours,
but there is nothing we can do about it, so we just have to get on
with it and accept that is the price of success at the top level.
We'd much rather be playing on in an FA Cup quarter-final than
not, so I'm sure the squad will get through it.
Unfortunately, there hasn't been much for me to talk about in
this column, but hopefully I'll be able to reflect on a much
more exciting week after we've faced Manchester City!
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