Reading of Mark Noble’s untimely ‘abdominal pains’ and subsequent surgery for appendicitis can only mean that he’s quite literally busted a gut in his last two West Ham outings.

It goes without saying what a huge loss it will be to be without him for the next month as he recovers. Not least because November was fast looking like the perfect opportunity to capitalise on what has been a solid October.

His performance against Stoke was superb and reminiscent of the player we got used to seeing back in 2007 when he kept us in the Premier League – assisted of course by Rob Green, Bobby Zamora and Carlos Tevez

A 23 year old who has made 125 appearances for West Ham

Particularly special about his determination against Stoke was the build up to it while he was on the bench. Or not, as the case may be. He spent almost every minute of the first hour of that game warming up in the corner of the Trevor Brooking Lower. Lapping up, enjoying and reciprocating the banter from the fans. The smile on his face was hilarious – he is clearly enjoying his football and loving playing in the claret & blue. Something we need to see more of from others on the pitch.

Mark Noble is a special player, lets not forget that. Ok, he may not be the quickest. But he’s not in the side to be quick so we have to get beyond that as a criticism. Sometimes his passing goes astray but other times his vision is second to none – take Obinna’s goal against Stoke as an example.

In Noble we have a 23 year old who has made 125 appearances for West Ham – the most experienced player at the club. You do not get to that point in your career without motivation and drive particularly through the bad times. He has, alongside Parker, become a very mature midfielder this season and it’s exciting to see.

In some ways, I wish we had more injuries at West Ham as a result of ‘busted gut’ – maybe then we’ll move off the bottom.

COYI

Statistics:

- Of our total 13 goals scored this year, Mark Noble has been involved in 5 (same as Parker, Obinna & Piquionne)
- We haven’t scored a goal that didn’t involved Mark Noble, Scott Parker or Victor Obinna this year

As a quick aside, I’d hugely recommend you take a look at Picklive (HERE). It’s a real-time, fantasy football game. You pick 3 players whilst your watching a match and score points on the actions that they complete. It even has the potential to add fun to a Stoke v Bolton game.