West Ham United boss David Moyes provided an update on the fitness of Aaron Cresswell, Declan Rice and Michail Antonio in his pre-match press conference looking ahead to Saturday’s Premier League trip to Newcastle United.
While the boss will be without the services of Rice and Antonio due to knee and hamstring issues respectively, he is hopeful Cresswell will recover from the knock he received in last weekend’s 3-2 victory over Leicester City in time to travel to St James’ Park.
Cresswell was replaced during the second half of that thrilling victory over the Foxes – the only Premier League minutes he has missed all season – so the boss is keen to have him available again as soon as possible.
He also said that Rice and Antonio are making progress in their work to come back to fitness and hopes they will be able to make their mark again before long.
“We’re not going to have Declan back and we don’t have Micky Antonio either,” he revealed.
“We’ve got another couple of knocks that we’re looking at. Aaron Cresswell picked up a bit of an injury [in Sunday’s win against Leicester] and we need to check him out.
“Like any other club we’ve got bumps and bruises at this time of year and it’s beginning to take its toll on a lot of the clubs.
“I actually think that since the players got back from international duty it’s gone back to quite a heavy injury schedule for many clubs.
“Hopefully we’ll be as good as we can be and we’ll make a decision on Aaron today. He’s a doubt but we hope he’ll be okay.
“We’re not putting any timeframe on Declan or Michail, but we’re hopeful that both will make a contribution before the end of the season, that’s for sure.
“Declan’s training really well, but it’s all gym-based at the moment. He’s working really hard in the gym because he wants to get back as quickly as he can.”