One Back And One Still Out: West Ham Manager Moyes Offers Injury Update Ahead Of United Clash
West Ham United manager David Moyes has updated the football world on the fitness of his squad ahead of tonight’s Premier League clash with Manchester United at the London Stadium.
The ex-Red Devils boss confirmed that fellow former United man Javier Hernandez remains out with a knee injury, while goalkeeper Joe Hart is back from illness, he had the following to say about the pair and veteran Patrice Evra in his pre-Manchester United press conference at Rush Green training ground on Thursday afternoon.
“Joe Hart is over his illness,” Moyes informed the press, “Patrice Evra is in the squad. Chicharito is the only one.
“He has a problem with his fat pad on his knee. He felt it in training last Thursday, so Chicharito is the only one at the moment from those you would expect to be around.”
With England shot-stopper Hart now back in the frame, Moyes has a decision to make about whether it will be him or Spanish keeper Adrian San-Miguel, who kept a clean sheet at the King Power Stadium on Saturday and was open about the tricky matter.
“I spoke with Joe a few weeks ago, at different times, and explained to him what I was feeling. Adrian was part of a clean-sheet on Saturday,” he proclaimed.
“Joe had played really well against Arsenal before he had to come out for the Manchester City game, and I always felt then if Adrian done well enough then he would stay in the goal, as he did Saturday.”
While it is looking increasingly like Adrian will start his third successive Hammers match, further up the field, the man who has turned things around in East London since replacing Slaven Bilic on November 2017, hinted at an outsider perhaps getting an opportunity over the closing two matches of the season, tonight’s encounter and Sunday’s home clash with Everton.
Jordan Hugill, signed from Preston North End in January, has only made two competitive appearances in Caret & Blue, a pair of cameos off the substitutes’ bench and if he can, Moyes is eager to try the striker out as the Irons hope to end a turbulent campaign with a flourish.
“I would like to get him an opportunity in the team, somewhere to show or give him an opportunity.
“Maybe if I get a chance in the last couple of games I’ll try and use him, but there’s no guarantee, and the reason why is because I want to win the games. I want to win the two games if I can, which could get us further up the league.”
Despite there still being two league tests left, the East Londoners were able to secure their survival for another season on Saturday afternoon, when they comfortably defeated Leicester City 0-2 and are now playing to finish as high as they possibly can in the standings.
Goals from Joao Mario and a thunderbolt from skipper Mark Noble, coupled with the draw between Everton and Southampton at Goodison Park, sealed the deal of avoiding the drop to the Sky Bet Championship for Moyes’ men.
After providing team news, later in the same press conference, the former Toffees boss went on to talk about his team’s safety, how he wasn’t expecting it to be confirmed so early, what it meant to his players and staff and closing out his first season at London Stadium.
“We were on the bus back from Leicester when we heard (that we were safe). We didn’t have coverage so it was coming through the radio, and a big cheer went up from the players when they heard because they knew that got us over the line,” confirmed the former United manager of ten months.
“But the biggest cheer for me was how the supporters reacted to the players and their performance at Leicester. The supporters understood how well we’d played and how well we had done.
“I was more thrilled with how well we had played at Leicester; How we had passed it and how we had scored good goals. Maybe on another day we would have scored more goals.
“The Southampton and Everton result helped, obviously, but the biggest result was ours. We always wanted it to be done by us.
“I probably expected it to go to the last week of the season, to be honest. I always thought, these two home games, we would have to win one of them to make sure we stayed up.
“But we’ve done it before that and I can enjoy the two games in the hope that we can win the points against them and climb up the league.”
You can follow this Thursday evening’s Premier League visit of Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United to the London Stadium to face David Moyes’ West Ham United right here on West Ham Matters, as we bring you a Live Blog of the eagerly-anticipated fixture, featuring live and exclusive build-up, text commentary and reaction from the Press Box of the former Olympic Stadium, from 5:45 PM BST.
