West Ham United go into Sunday's final game of the season with hopes that Anton Ferdinand could be back to face Aston Villa and positive news on a number of players ahead of the close-season.
The homegrown defender has been missing since a hamstring injury away to Bolton Wanderers on 12 April but has been back in training after resuming running a week ago. As well as Ferdinand being in contention for the weekend, while Matthew Upson and Jonathan Spector are also nearly fit again, there are hopes that Luis Boa Morte (hip) and Dean Ashton (groin) will be available despite the knocks that forced them off in the second half of last week's game at Manchester United.
Meanwhile, Alan Curbishley has confirmed that long-term absentee Craig Bellamy is looking good ahead of the new campaign and will spend next week with FA Cup finalists Cardiff City. "Craig Bellamy is in full training and has been doing everything," he said. "We're going to hopefully continue that. Obviously we finish at the weekend but kindly [Cardiff manager] Dave Jones has allowed Craig to train with them for a week as they prepare for the cup game. So, he can get another week's football in and we can see where we are after that."
There was also positive news on Julien Faubert, who "could probably, at a push, be fit for Sunday but it's the last game and I'd prefer to have a clean bill of health with him" while "Kieron Dyer is running fully and doing really well" after being troubled by a recent minor irritation on his recovery from a double leg-break. James Collins (knee) and Calum Davenport (neck) also making progress while Matthew Etherington and Lee Bowyer (both groin/abdominal) will step up their rehabilitation next week.
The manager confirmed that decisions would also be made on midfielders Tony Stokes and Nolberto Solano, who both have come to the end of their contracts, while he added Henri Camara would return to Wigan Athletic after his season-long loan. While there are only a few issues outstanding, it is the impending return of key attacking players like Bellamy that will be key to the summer activity and thoughts for next season. "To miss Craig Bellamy for basically a whole season, and the flashes of what he's shown us, means I just want to get him and Ashton and have the competition with Bobby Zamora, Carlton Cole and Freddie Sears," he said, before adding "not many people could find themselves in mid-table with what we have been through."