David Moyes has offered an update on the fitness of his West Ham United squad ahead of our Premier League fixture with Southampton on Sunday.
The Hammers are looking for a third consecutive victory in the top-flight after beating Wolverhampton Wanderers and Fulham in their last two league matches.
Unbeaten since the international break, West Ham’s squad depth has shone in recent weeks with Moyes making eight changes between the last two fixtures as the Hammers recorded wins in both the Premier League and UEFA Europa Conference League.
However, the Hammers boss will hope to have a full squad back soon, and offered a positive update on Michail Antonio, Kurt Zouma and Thilo Kehrer, who all missed the match against RSC Anderlecht, although Maxwel Cornet was ruled out of this weekend’s fixture.
“Antonio is a little bit better,” Moyes said. “Kurt has got a little bit of the sniffles, so we will need to see how he is as well.
“Thilo was more of a precaution than anything. We expect him to be okay [for Southampton]. Maxwel has had a small calf strain, so we have got to be careful with him. Obviously, he's not available for the Southampton game."
With the press conference held before training, Moyes explained he has had limited time to examine the fitness of defenders Craig Dawson and Angelo Ogbonna, both of whom left the field injured in Thursday's UEFA Europa Conference League outing against Anderlecht.
Ogbonna was replaced by Dawson midway through the first half in east London, before the Hammers No15 was later substituted for Tomáš Souček.
“I've not really got any update from where we were last night,” Moyes said. “We’re just getting bits and pieces together and getting ready to train.”
However, the boss stated after the game on Thursday: “I think Angelo felt his hamstring. He felt it really early, in his first run. He’s someone who was coming back from really serious injury and we’re disappointed he had to miss a big part of tonight’s game. He’s making good progress, so let’s hope tonight’s injury isn’t too bad.
“Daws had a dead leg anyway and I think he got another one tonight right in the same spot, so we took him off more as a precaution rather than anything else.”
