VLA-SICK
West Ham ace Nikola Vlasic breaks down in tears as Burnley star Westwood is stretchered off on oxygen with horror injury
NIKOLA VLASIC broke down in tears after Burnley star Ashley Westwood needed oxygen and a stretcher following a sickening coming-together.
The West Ham forward returned to the starting XI for the Premier League clash only to be reduced to tears within half an hour at the London Stadium.
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Vlasic and Westwood fought for the ball in the middle of the park and clash in a seemingly innocuous tackle.
But players from both teams immediately looked panicked as medics rushed on with a stretcher after Westwood frantically flapped his arms calling for help.
Vlasic looked to the ground and, after seeing the extent of the injury, hopped up and down, put his hands on his head and slumped to his knees in a display of pure shock.
Westwood was quickly given an oxygen mask with the match stopped.
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The Burnley man, who was eventually taken off the pitch on the stretcher, briefly removed his mask and gave a sheepish smile to the applauding fans in East London.
But Vlasic was visibly emotional as players, including Hammers ace Aaron Cresswell, reacted in disgust to the horror injury.
Westwood was replaced by Josh Brownhill, with Burnley producing a gutsy display despite the horror injury - and lack of manager following Sean Dyche's shock sacking.
Wout Weghorst gave the relegation-threatened Clarets a shock lead after nodding home the rebound following Jay Rodriguez's header against the bar.
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It could have been 2-0, too - only for Maxwel Cornet to miss his penalty after being brought down by Lukasz Fabianski as West Ham looked to stay afloat in the game.
The game ultimately ended in a 1-1 draw after Tomas Soucek's equaliser with just 15 minutes to play.
After the match, interim Burnley boss Mike Jackson had his say on the sickening injury.
Jackson admitted: “What happened with Ash wasn’t nice to see and it affected the rest of the players.
“We’re still waiting for an update on the extent of the damage, but you’re probably right to say that it could be the end of his season.
“You could see straight away from the reaction of the players that it wasn’t good.
“Declan Rice came straight over and said it was a serious one. Ashley was distraught when he was taken off and it’s a big blow to our group because he’s really well thought of within our group.
“Our thoughts are with him and we’re all keeping our fingers crossed that the injury is not as bad as expected.”
Hammers boss David Moyes added: “I haven’t seen the incident again but they tell me that Niki was nowhere near Westwood and it’s nothing for him to be concerned about.
“If you’re directly involved in a challenge that injures someone it can upset you. But that wasn’t the case with Vlasic and he’s OK.
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“The stoppage didn’t help us because we’d just got a bit of rhythm going before the injury but we turned off after the incident.
“We gave away a free-kick and then we gave away the corner they scored from and it was not very good from us.”
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