West Ham United manager David Moyes has provided an update on the respective injury statuses of defenders Angelo Ogbonna and Vladimír Coufal.
Ogbonna made his long-awaited return to first team action last Thursday in the UEFA Europa Conference League play-off round first leg against Viborg FF, captaining the side to a 3-1 win on his first showing since last November.
The experienced Italian centre-back did not feature in Sunday’s Premier League defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion, and manager Moyes explained that the Hammers had brought Ogbonna back into action slightly earlier than initially planned.
“Angelo has been huge for us,” Moyes told his pre-match press conference. “People can see he has a huge personality for us. He’s big in the dressing room and he is a really important player for us.
“I actually believe we’ve brought him back a little bit sooner than we’d have liked to. I think he probably needed another three or four weeks of training, and some games, but we needed him.
“He’s not fully ready yet but we felt the game last week was a good one for him to get back in amongst it. We’re glad to have him back. He’s really important for his experience and his know-how of the game. He’s been here seven years now and he is very experienced for the Club.”
The boss also indicated that Coufal, who was substituted off against Brighton at the weekend, will make a full recovery but could not feature in Thursday’s second leg due to the concussion protocols.
“Coufal can’t play tomorrow. I think he can’t play for six days because of concussion. He was knocked out but he’s fine. He’s been running about and wants to be involved, but the protocols are that he can’t play.”
The manager also expressed his delight at the acquisition of the Club's latest new signing, Italy international defender Emerson Palmieri from Chelsea.
The 28-year-old signed for the east London side on Tuesday and, while Moyes is not able to call on the full-back for Thursday’s match, he is eager to see what Emerson can bring to the team.
He added: “We’ve been looking for help for Aaron Cresswell for a while. It’s been really difficult to fill that position.
“Emerson has always been really high on our list. We had looked at others for that role in the last two months but Emerson, in the end, we were able to get over the line, and he’ll help us at that left-back and left wing-back role. I’m hoping he can show what he can do.
“He can’t travel tomorrow as we had to register the players for the first leg, and you can’t change them.”
