Craig Dawson looks certain to miss out at the London Stadium tomorrow night as Dinamo Zagreb arrive for our for our final match of the Europa Cup opening games.
Dawson is reported by one of our insiders to have taken a small knock in the defeat of Chelsea but will be okay for the game against Burnley at the weekend.
It is certainly is not a serious issue but it almost certainly means that Issa Diop will be the one partnering one of the academy prospects – probably Jamal Baptiste – at central defence.
David Moyes explained in his presser today that he would be playing one or two younger players and was looking forward to giving them their debuts.
And Baptiste has long been fancied to be the one stepping up as the Hammers look to land a financial boost of £500,000 plus by winning a game which of course represents a dead rubber.
As a result of that it remains to be seen how strong a team arrives from Croatia.
Thursday game line up should be
Areola
Ashby, Baptiste, Alese, Longelo
Noble, Karl
Yarmolenko, Vlasic, Masuaku
Perkins
And our bench should be all youngsters and give the 1st teamers a rest from a game that has no relevance for us. No need to risk any further injuries to established 1st teamers