Manuel Pellegrini revealed Michail Antonio has undergone successful surgery on the hamstring injury he suffered in the Carabao Cup second-round win at Newport County last month.
The winger was hurt early in the Hammers’ 2-0 success and underwent an operation during the international break. He is now recovering from the procedure before embarking on a period of rehabilitation.
Antonio and centre-back Winston Reid, who remains out of action 18 months after suffering a serious knee injury in a Premier League fixture at Swansea City, are the only two senior players unavailable for Monday’s trip to Aston Villa.
“We have no new injuries following the international break and we have all the players fit except Winston Reid and Michail Antonio, who had surgery on his leg,” Pellegrini confirmed. “So, all the other players are OK.
“I hope that the surgery went well. The doctors are happy and now he needs time to recover. I just spoke with him and he is without any pain, so everything is going in the correct way.”
With only two players unavailable, Pellegrini has 21 senior players to select from for Monday’s fixture at Villa Park, including Lukasz Fabianski, Andriy Yarmolenko, Declan Rice and Albian Ajeti, who each featured twice for their respective countries.
Fabian Balbuena, Manuel Lanzini and Robert Snodgrass were also in international action, while Pablo Zabaleta featured in former Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany’s Testimonial match.
