West Ham United dodged a bullet when failing to complete the signing of Duvan Zapata in the January transfer window.

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According to a report by Gazzetta dello Sport (via Sport Witness), the Atalanta centre-forward, who saw an 11th-hour deadline day transfer to West Ham fall through, has now suffered a fresh injury - with the Colombia international being withdrawn just 14 minutes into his return to first-team action against Cagliari last Sunday, having recovered from a thigh strain that saw him miss the Serie A side's last three fixtures.

The report goes on to state that the 30-year-old's latest setback - believed to be a tendon injury - could keep him sidelined for around three months, while Sky Sports Italy report that Zapata looks unlikely to feature for the Nerazzurri again this season.

Disaster dodged

With it being well documented that David Moyes' primary objective in the January transfer window was the addition of a new centre-forward, in order to provide the injury-prone Michail Antonio with backup and competition in the second half of the current campaign, the recent news that Zapata looks to have been ruled out until the summer will have the 58-year-old manager breathing a big sigh of relief.

Indeed, with it being reported that the Hammers had agreed a loan to buy deal with the Italian club for the 30-year-old hitman, before the move fell through as a result of the Premier League side failing to complete the necessary paperwork prior to the transfer deadline, should the Irons have managed to sign the striker in time, they could well have been left paying £57k-per-week wages of a player who would have been unavailable for selection.

As such, while it is obviously uncertain whether or not the striker who West Ham reportedly offered €32m (£27m) to sign would have still picked an injury upon a switch to East London, the club's failure to land the player who Papu Gomez previously dubbed a "beast" nevertheless looks as if it was a disaster luckily dodged by Moyes and his transfer team.

In other news: Forget Masuaku: David Moyes must finally unleash "tremendous" 21 y/o West Ham sensation