West Ham star Nikola Vlasic in tears after Burnley's Ashley Westwood suffers horror injury

Nikola Vlasic was reduced to tears after Ashley Westwood suffered a horror injury in the first half of Burnley's Premier League trip to West Ham. The Clarets midfielder suffered a suspected broken ankle following a challenge with the Croatian international, who was left distraught by the devastating outcome of the tackle.

Play was stopped for several minutes and both teams temporarily left the field of play while Westwood received treatment, before later being stretchered off.

Vlasic appeared to immediately realise the severity of the injury as he encouraged medical staff to rush to the scene.

Westwood's leg appeared to get caught underneath the winger during the challenge with the scores level at 0-0 in Burnley's first game since the midweek sacking of Sean Dyche.

Declan Rice was among those to console his team-mate Vlasic, as he struggled to hold back the tears.

READ MORE: Man Utd unchanged on forward Mason Greenwood following 'return to training' claims

It's a scene that sadly has been witnessed before in the Premier League in recent years and there were shades of Son Heung-min's reaction to Andre Gomes' unfortunate injury (November 2019), when Vlasic struggled to keep his emotions in check.

There was a warm applause from everyone inside the London Stadium as Westwood left the field before being transported to hospital.

West Ham sent their well wishes to the Burnley man following the stoppage, tweeting from their official account: "Ashley Westwood is getting medical attention for a serious looking injury here. Our best wishes for him in his recovery."

Several of Burnley's players were also shaken after watching their team-mate suffer such a serious injury as the relegation dogfight briefly took a backseat.

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Dwight McNeil was close to the incident and immediately put his hands behind his head.

He was later spotted kneeling and taking a moment to himself after seeing the horrible injury up close.

There was some slightly more positive news, however, when Westwood touched hands with one of the Burnley staff as he left the field on the stretcher.

The combative midfielder was also able to raise a smile to Ben Mee when he left the field by the dugouts.

His team-mates clearly used the incident as motivation in their quest for survival and the Clarets led 1-0 at the breakthrough Wout Weghorst.

Burnley had a golden chance to double their lead too from the penalty spot but Maxwel Cornet fired wide from 12 yards.

The Ivorian sent goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski the wrong way but couldn't find the target...

Cornet would live to rue the missed opportunity though as Tomas Soucek levelled things up to earn the Hammers a point in the second half...

Burnley have since issued an update on their injured midfielder, posting on Twitter: "Ashley Westwood today suffered a serious injury to his ankle.

"He is doing well and with the club doctor and will be assessed by a specialist in the coming days.

"Everyone at the club wishes him a speedy recovery."