After joining West Ham United at Everton on Saturday as a late substitution, Michail Antonio said he was worn out.
After missing time in November and early February due to a knee injury, the West Ham striker is still working his way back to full fitness.
Michail Antonio returned to the team and started against Nottingham Forest. Since then, he has came off the bench in victories against Everton and Brentford.
The 33-year-old played for around 15 minutes on Saturday at Goodison Park as the Hammers unexpectedly won 3-1.
And after entering the game late for Everton, Antonio acknowledged that he was “dead.”
Antonio says he was exhausted during Everton win
After spending just ten minutes on the field on Saturday, Antonio said he was having trouble in an interview with the Footballer’s Football Podcast.
“When I arrived, it was around the 75th minute, and I was already dead.” I had passed away. After around ten minutes, the Hammers forward said.
The most absurd part about it is that I was like, “I’m not going,” when I saw Jarrod [Bowen] in front of me and he was going to nick it.
“As soon as I noticed Edson [Alvarez] leaving, I decided to sit in DM here in case things didn’t work out for us.”
Antonio should have been nearing match fitness shortly after making three appearances after recovering from a knee injury.
The forward has already acknowledged that he had a difficult afternoon at Forest a few weeks ago when he made his comeback to the team.
However, Antonio should have many of opportunities in the upcoming weeks as the Hammers’ games are expected to come thick and fast from this point on.
In fact, West Ham’s next matchup is with SC Freiburg in the Europa League round of 16, and they play Burnley on Sunday.
At some point, Moyes will undoubtedly have to switch up his lineup, which may be a good chance to give Antonio more playing time as he continues to improve his fitness.