CandH Exclusive by Hughie Southon

Maxwel Cornet will definitely miss the game against Anderlecht tomorrow evening (Thursday) and will also be absent when the team take on Fulham on Sunday.

After having scans, it appears the new £17.5 million signing injured his thigh when being forced off early against Wolves and will definitely miss the two games as a result.

A Hammers source told us: “Maxwel has been scanned and yes, has a thigh injury, We exopect him to be out for up to 14 days.”

Cornet has been singularly unlucky since arriving from Burnley having seen what the world believed was a perfectly good goal ruled out via a shocking VAR decision at Stamford Bridge before his latest setback on Saturday at the London Stadium.

He is set to miss games now against Fulham of course, Southampton and probably Liverpool at Anfield with his most likely reappearance coming in the game against Bournemouth on October 24.

Ben Johnson is available for the Fulham game and as reported earlier Nayef Aguerd is making progress whilst training on grass.

The 17-year-old Regan Clayton was in training with West Ham’s first-team ahead of the Europa League clash with Anderlecht, according to a report from Football.London.

The Hammers have been in decent form in Europe this season and beat both FCSB and Silkeborg in their first two encounters in the Europa Conference League.

Clayton plays as a left-back and has been a fixture for both the Under-18s and the Under-23s in recent months.

For the former, he has made 45 appearances, and scored three goals, while also registering two assists, and he has played 11 times for the Under-18s.

While he has not yet made his debut for the first-team, he was on the bench for the clash with FCSB earlier in the group stage.

The teenager is clearly highly thought of at the Hammers and he signed a professional contract back in June, which has tied him to the club for the foreseeable future.

West Ham flop Albian Ajeti has explained that he could have joined Lazio but had a “gut feeling” to move to east London.

The striker joined the Irons from Basel in 2019.

The Irons paid around £10m to bring him in from the Swiss side, but he only lasted a season before moving to Celtic.

In total, he played 12 times for the first-team but did not manage to score a goal, nor did he provide an assist.

Even during his time with Celtic, he only managed nine goals in 48 games, and is now on loan at Sturm Graz in Austria.

A Switzerland international with 11 caps, Ajeti has now explained that he could have joined Lazio, whom Sturm Graz are currently preparing to play in the Europa League group stage.

Speaking in an interview with Kronen Zeitung, he said: “There were talks (with Lazio). In the end, it was certainly not a decision against Lazio, but my gut feeling advised me to go to West Ham.”

Ajeti was actually prolific at Basel before moving to West Ham, as he scored 43 goals in 96 games for the club, but the scoring touch has deserted him in recent seasons.

Pedro Obiang made a long-awaited return to football over the weekend with Italian club Sassuolo.

The 30-year-old missed over 500 days of action due to a horror lung problem.

Per The Sun, he was unable to train or play after a bronchopulmonary outbreak of a viral nature.

Obiang missed the entirety of the 2021/22 season, as a result, but he played at the weekend as Sassuolo beat Salernitana 5-0, coming on as a late substitute.

He wrote on Instagram, as per the report: “And finally after 504 days we are officially back in Serie A.

“Honestly, thank you very much to all of you who are always supporting me, to those who have helped me during the most difficult periods, my family obviously, @sassuolocalcio and team-mates who are the best that’s ever touched me.

“We continue the fight and hopefully it will be the beginning of my new football youth.”

Obiang spent four years with the Hammers between 2015 and 2019, making 116 appearances in total.

He departed for Sassuolo in 2019 but his playing time at the club has, quite understandably, been limited significantly by the injury woes he has been dealing with.

The Guinea international has won 11 caps for his country and has a contract with the Serie A club until 2023.

Everyone at ClaretandHugh is delighted to see Pedro back on a football pitch, doing what he does best.

 (Photo by Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images)

Jarrod Bowen’s injured finger is unlikely to keep him out of the Hammers line up in Belgium should he be required in tomorrow evening’s Conference clash.

Bowen dislocated the finger during the game against Wolves, but a Hammers insider revealed that he will be available should the manager need him although it seems unlikely, he will be risked given the weekend game against Fulham

There is better news of long term absentee Nayef Aguerd – injured in pre-season – with the news that he is now back on grass.

He is now looking to make a return for his country Morocco in the World Cup which would see him not too far from kicking footballs again should he continue to make decent progress.

However, in truth, should Daws retain his fitness – along with Kurt Zouma – the £30 million central defender will  not be as badly missed as might have been expected given the form he showed against Wolves in the weekend victory.

The Irons head for Belgium as likely favourites for only their second clash with Anderlecht tomorrow night (Thurs) – the other being when they were beaten in the 1976 European Cup Winners’ Cup final.

That means they are also on a revenge mission, but a tight game is very much on the cards.

The Hammers have two wins from two Group B matches played, after beating Romanians FCSB 3-1 at London Stadium and Danish side Silkeborg IF 3-2 on the road in September.

Anderlecht are also unbeaten, having beaten Silkeborg 1-0 at Lotto Park on Matchday One, then drawn 0-0 at FCSB last time out.

A total of 1300 Hammers fans will be inside the stadium which has just a 21,500-capacity cheering on what is likely to be a much-changed side from the one that beat Wolves at the weekend.

There will also be NO goal-line technology or VAR in operation at Lotto Park on Thursday evening. There is also no VAR in use in the UECL this season.

If a player receives three cautions during the group stage he will be required to serve a one-match suspension. Maxwel Cornet, Aaron Cresswell, Angelo Ogbonna and Emerson have all received one caution so far.

Each manager can name up to 12 substitutes, of whom five can be used on three occasions (plus half-time). There are no additional ‘concussion substitutes’ available in UEFA Club Competitions.

The team news remains much as it was before the weekend with Ben Johnson back in training after recovering from a thigh problem.

Anderlecht’s only injury issues surround central midfielder Adrien Trébel, who has been out with a shoulder injury since August, and Belgium U21 international defensive midfielder Marco Kana, who has only featured once this season.

Burnley’s Josh Brownhill has refused to rule out the prospect of leaving the club in future, having previously been linked with a move to West Ham.

The Hammers were credited with an interest in signing the 26-year-old in the summer and they weren’t the only club said to be eyeing up a bid.

Wolves, Southampton, Leeds, Leicester and Everton were all said to be monitoring his situation, although no bids were actually tabled.

Brownhill is now playing in the Championship after Burnley’s relegation but he is shining in the second-tier, scoring four goals and laying on two assists in 11 league appearances.

He was asked about the speculation surrounding him in the summer by Burnley Express but he has stopped short of committing his future to the Turf Moor club.

He said: “You hear of all sorts of things that go round, especially when the transfer window is open, rumours fly around, but for me I think everyone has seen from day one that I’ve got my head down and worked hard.

Brownhill has a contract until 2024 and has been with Burnley since 2020; he has previously played for Bristol City, Preston North End, and Barnsley.

Craig Dawson was so close to leaving West Ham in the summer.

A new report from The Athletic makes it clear that the veteran centre-back was two hours away from a move to Wolves.

The two clubs had agreed a fee worth £4m and staff at Wolves were preparing for the player’s medical.

The Hammers, as we reported on the day, turned their attentions to signing Southampton centre-back Jan Bednarek as his replacement.

Bednarek, though, decided to move to Aston Villa instead, on a season-long loan, and that put paid to Dawson’s potential move to the Hammers, with Wolves informed two hours before the medical was booked.

Dawson has a contract that expires in 2023 so there is every chance that a move could be revisited in January, provided the Hammers can source a replacement.

Nayef Aguerd may be fit then, of course, while the other options in defence are Thilo Kehrer, Kurt Zouma, and Angelo Ogbonna.