West Ham sweating on fitness issues
West Ham are sweating on the fitness of three players ahead of their trip to Leicester City with their upcoming Europa Conference League Final not expected to influence David Moyes’ team selection.
The Hammers are the side the Foxes must beat in order to stay in the Premier League, with Dean Smith’s men also requiring Everton to slip up at home to Bournemouth.
There are potentially three players who will be missing for the Hammers at the King Power Stadium. Striker Gianluca Scamacca is the most likely to be unavailable, having not played since March after undergoing knee surgery. He was pictured at training last week though.
Centre-back Nayef Aguerd and midfielder Flynn Downes both missed West Ham’s win over Leeds last weekend, but may return in time to face City. Aguerd had picked up a knock, while Downes was missing through illness.
In that victory over Leeds, Kurt Zouma came off at half-time, but Moyes said that he was fine and that it was always a part of the plan to only give him 45 minutes.
This is not the Hammers’ last game of the season as they will bid for glory when they face Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League final. While that match is of much greater importance to the Hammers than this week’s trip to City, it won’t weigh too heavily on Moyes’ mind for now.
There are 10 days between this weekend’s fixture and the final, and so it’s not likely that any players will be rested by Moyes. If he did leave any of his regulars out, they would then be going into the Fiorentina final on the back of a period of two-and-a-half weeks without playing.
