David Moyes has confirmed that Jarrod Bowen is likely to remain on the sidelines for West Ham United’s home match against Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.
Top scorer Bowen missed the Hammers’ UEFA Europa League quarter-final first leg defeat at Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday evening, having been withdrawn in the early stages of the second half during last Saturday’s win at Wolverhampton Wanderers following a heavy collision.
Goalkeeper Alphonse Areola (groin) and midfielder Kalvin Phillips (hamstring) were also absent in Germany in midweek, and Moyes explained both men will be assessed ahead of the next outing at the weekend.
Defender Dinos Mavropanos also faces a late fitness test, after being replaced by Nayef Aguerd in the 86th minute of the 2-0 reverse at the hands of Leverkusen.
Moyes said: “We’ve only just come back from Germany, so we’re still working things out, but I don’t think we’ll have Jarrod at the weekend unfortunately.
“We’re not sure about Alphonse or Kalvin, and I’ve not had chance to speak to the medical team about Dinos yet, to see what the feeling is with him. Whether that’s a bad one or not, we don’t know yet.”
With little over a month of the 2023/24 season remaining, and West Ham continuing to battle for success at home and on the continent, Moyes admitted there are both physical and mental challenges to contend with as a result of the frequency of matches.
But the manager is proud of the way his players have conducted themselves across the last three campaigns, and believes the experience they have gained during that time has helped equip them to cope on all fronts.
“It’s hard mentally, to get yourself back and the players ready to go again, and physically as well, because you need time to recover,” Moyes added.
“But we’ve been doing it for three years now. I don’t think you ever get properly used to it, but we have a sense of where we need to get to by matchday.
“Right now, we have two days to go until we go again, and we have to make sure we do what we need to, and are ready when the time comes.”
