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Zola’s Cole own-goal
Carlton Cole faces missing the rest of the season – all because West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola felt sorry for him.
West Ham striker Cole took a slight groin problem into the England training camp then aggravated it against Slovakia on Saturday.
He now faces being sidelined for six weeks. Zola could have withdrawn 12-goal striker Cole to protect him for the Hammers’ end-of-season push for a European place , but said : “It never crossed my mind to pull him out as a precaution. That would have been a very selfish thing to do. The England call-up was very important to him .”
Cole was originally expected to be out for no more than three weeks but a scan yesterday confirmed his absence until at least the middle of May.