West Ham United under-21s centre-back Jamal Baptiste has confirmed that he will be leaving the club at the end of the season when his contract expires.
Baptiste, who had previously been highly-rated at West Ham, went five months without playing for the academy between September and February, with the defender now revealing that he had Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare illness which can lead to nerve damage.
The defender is currently in Mumbai in India as part of an under-19s squad that are competing in the 2023 Premier League Next Gen Cup and will face Everton in a third place play-off on Thursday.
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Baptiste has however confirmed his exit in an interview with The Athletic, saying that while he has loved playing for the club, it is time for a fresh challenge.
“Playing academy football from 15 to 19 is a long time. I’m ready for first-team football and to take the next step,” Baptsite told The Athletic .
“I loved having the opportunity to play for West Ham; I’m a local lad and the club will always have a place in my heart. But I’m ready for the next step in my career and I feel like the best is yet to come.”
Baptiste has also detailed the struggles of suffering with Guillain-Barre syndrome and how West Ham co-owner David Sullivan played a huge part in helping him get seen to by his own personal doctor.
The 19-year-old centre-back has thanked Sullivan for believing in him and for personally pushing for Baptiste to get tested.
“He [Sullivan] has helped me massively,” Baptise explained. “I had glandular fever which later developed into Guillain-Barre syndrome.
“It was a difficult time in my life. [David] Sullivan let me see his private doctor and I can’t thank him enough for actually believing me that there was something wrong in the first place.
“He trusted me, and I thankfully found out I had an issue which needed to be sorted out. I thanked him big time because he’s the one who pushed for the tests. I saw his doctor four to five times in the space of a week.”
In his interview, Baptiste also cleared up speculation over his lack of playing time this season after first-team manager David Moyes spoke out on his absence, saying that he had had problems and that Baptiste had not helped himself.
"He's had real problems. Problems I won't discuss here,” Moyes told football.london. “But real problems.
“Look, he's someone we really like as a boy, like as a player. He's had difficult times and he's not helped himself, I've got to say, partly as well.
"But it's not quite as smooth as I would like it to have been. We had really big hopes for him a couple of years ago but he's had difficulties to be honest.”
Baptiste’s problems that Moyes had alluded too were with his time-keeping, which he admitted he could and should have dealt better with.
However, the teenager said that while he did not know when he would be able to play again, once he got help, he felt a sense of relief.
“There were times where I’d be at training and I’m falling asleep in the physio’s room, but I’ve had a long sleep the day before,” added Baptiste. “People were thinking I was always going to bed late.
“I think that affected my timekeeping and occasionally turning up to training late. Maybe I should’ve dealt with that better by speaking to coaches or getting help earlier. I always hold myself accountable but there were times I’d wake up and think, ‘I’m not playing football. I’m not doing what I love. I don’t want to go training just to practically do nothing’.
“That wasn’t the way to think and, thankfully, I’ve got out of that mindset. I could’ve had eight hours of sleep, wake up to go to training and I’d still feel tired. Straight away, I knew the difference between me being tired and me physically not being able to play. I’d run and it felt like I was being held back by a sack of sand. I would try to do things I’d normally do and it wouldn’t come off. I just didn’t feel like me.
“The illness itself killed all of the good cells and germs in my body, so there was a lot of bacteria in my blood cells. So for my body to function, I had to rest and let it repair. There was nothing I could take to quicken the process. It was just time and recovery — and that was hard.
“It’s the longest I’ve gone without playing football and I didn’t know when I’d be able to return. I was determined to recover and get back to where I was.
“I feel like people held such a high standard towards me that they disregard that I’ve never been injured before, or had other setbacks. I was struggling to deal with the situation but when I got help from the right people, I was relieved.”
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