Michail Antonio makes Jarrod Bowen admission as stand-in striker gets England call-up

West Ham's Michail Antonio has praised his teammate Jarrod Bowen for stepping up to the plate as the team's main striker. Antonio, who started his career at West Ham as a winger under Slaven Bilic, has since become a key player and the club's all-time top scorer in the Premier League.

Despite the arrival of strikers like Simone Zaza, Javier Hernandez, Sebastien Haller and Gianluca Scamacca, Antonio has held his own. The 33-year-old has also scored nine goals in Europe over the past two seasons, helping David Moyes' team win their first major trophy since 1981 with last year's Europa Conference League.

However, injuries this season have forced Moyes to play Bowen as a striker — a role he has excelled in. Antonio, who returned from injury in February, believes Bowen has what it takes to lead the line as West Ham prepare to face Freiburg in the Europa League on Thursday.

Speaking to the Mirror, Antonio expressed his confidence in his teammate's abilities. He said: «To be fair, Jarrod's always been quite a strong guy. He always comes in anyway and plays a bit everywhere. He said he's played up front before, so he definitely believes in his ability and knows he can play across the line. And We all know how well Jarrod can score goals, so when he gets an opportunity, he takes it. He's just a quality player and I'm not surprised he's doing well up front.»

Antonio had to sit out for a while due to a training issue which he describes as «just wild, really». He'd hurt his knee during the October international break but had returned to training in early January when a slip delayed his recovery by a few more weeks. However, he believes «Everything happens for a reason» and he wasn't «meant» to be back.

This was Antonio's first long