Michail Antonio has revealed that it was Mark Noble's idea for the West Ham players to pay tribute to their teammate Andriy Yarmolenko and the people of Ukraine ahead of the Hammers clash with Wolves last weekend.
During the warm-up the West Ham players all had No.7 Yarmolenko printed on the back of their training tops whilst the Wolves squad had "No To War" t-shirts on. The two teams were sending a message of support to Ukraine with the Hammers in particular thinking of their teammate and Ukrainian international Yarmolenko.
Messages of support were shown on the big screens in the ground adorned with a picture of Yarmolenko in international colours and Hammers striker Antonio has revealed it was club captain Noble's idea to show their support for Yarmolenko in this way.
"Mark Noble came up with the idea of doing a tribute to him because obviously, he is going through a hard time and so is everyone else in Ukraine," Antonio told the Footballers Football podcast.
"He thought we should do a tribute for him and everyone over there to show our support as a team and as a club."
Speaking ahead of West Ham's FA Cup defeat to Southampton in mid-week Anotnio said the decision for whether he was available to play has been left to Yarmolenko, with the Ukrainian opting out of traveling to St Mary's.
"Obviously he [Yarmolenko] is going through a difficult time right now, he has family members out there and has had a little bit of time off. In the last couple of days, he has managed to come back into training," Antonio added.
"The gaffer has given him the option of whether he is going to travel or not for the FA Cup game."
Yarmolenko's availability for the trip to Anfield on Saturday is expected to once again rest with the player with the club applying no pressure on their No.7 to play.
Antonio summed up his feelings towards the situation concisely and with great empathy.
"I could not imagine being in his situation," he said.
