Winston Reid: The 2nd longest serving player for West Ham is missing

West Ham United started off last Saturday with a rough outing that left many of us questioning the state of the defense. One of those members, Winston Reid, had seemingly been nowhere to be found.

Without a doubt, the center-back position was the best part of the backline for West Ham last season. With solid signings, Diop and Balbuena, leading the charge last season, that was expected again. Insert Man City last week and they turned Diop and Balbuena back into mortal humans.

More from Green Street Hammers - West Ham

The Hammers had two “signings” at that defensive core this offseason as well. First up the young Goncalo Cardoso from Boavista signed to help bolster that backline for years to come. Secondly, West Ham had their very own Winston Reid coming back from injury but showing rust in the preseason. Since then, he has been missing for a lack of better words.

Has there been a setback in the rehab? Has he just lost favor from the Gaffer? In total, Reid has been missing for 495 days between when he got hurt and when he faced off against Altrach in Austria last month.

With two years left on his contract, where is he? Nobody has seen Reid training since the preseason tournament in China. According to Sam Inkersole of football.london, he hasn’t had any injury setbacks and is available for selection.

It seems that Reid is still the 4th choice center-back behind the 2 mentioned before and Ogbonna and has been involved with group tactics training yet getting more individualized training away from the rest of the group.

Haller was the brightest light for West Ham on Saturday.. dark. Next

It is unknown if he has a timetable for his recovery, but I would imagine that the trainers will take their time and not risk a setback much like the recovery of Yarmolenko and Wilshere. This is good news for all as I hope we can get back the Reid that we saw on that late May night in 2016.