West Ham boss David Moyes is more than hopeful he will have Michail Antonio back in the first team squad sooner rather than later.

Mikey misses the trip to Anfield tomorrow with a hamstring problem but the manager has revealed the striker is as fit as he’s ever seen him and that “he’s in a good place.”

Talking to reporters the manager revealed: I think Micky is really positive about his injury. We’ve already got him on the bike and he’s moving which for the type of injury we’re really pleased with.

He had another scan and an ultrasound yesterday as well. He’s in a good place. The big thing for Mick, it’s the fittest I’ve seen him – and maybe people have been seeing West Ham a lot longer.

“But certainly it’s fittest Micky Antonio has been [for me]. There was a long period where Micky couldn’t play for 90 minutes, you’d have to take him off.

So the big thing for me is that we keep Micky Antonio in that condition and when we get him back he’s ready to continue the performance he showed after lockdown.”

The manager also explained that the injury he’s suffering is nothing like as bad as he’s had in the past adding: “It’s nowhere like the level. That’s also due to the strength work he’s involved in, the work he’s doing.

He’s much more aware of his body now, what he needs to do, his prep for games and his recovery work after them. So for all those reasons, I think we’re hopefully going to get him back quite quickly.

He confirmed that it will be Seb Haller upfront at Liverpool and believes he would have been selected after we came back from lockdown but said that he had an injury.

He declared: “I think Seb would have been selected after we came back from lockdown, but he picked up an injury in training the day before we came back.

He’s had lots of time to settle into Premier League football, to see whether he knows what it’s about. He’s got an opportunity to show what he can do and he’ll get that chance to do so.”