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Moyes delivers big Mikey update

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David Moyes insists he will not pick Mikey Antonio against Sevilla if he isn’t 100% fit.

We have been told that the Jamaica international is rated as having a 50/50 chance of playing in the game against the Spanish side on Thursday.

Mikey limped out of the weekend’s win over Aston Villa and it remains to be seen if he will be fit for the huge clash on Thursday.

Moyes dropped a big update on his fitness, insisting that he is genuinely unsure if he will be fit to play against the Liga side, but he has also confirmed that he does not intend to pick a half-fit player.

It raises the prospect of West Ham going into the game without Mikey, but Moyes maintains that the club have the attributes in the squad to get by without him; the Irons scored twice after he was substituted at the weekend.

Speaking ahead of the game, as per Football.London, he said: “They (Antonio and Aaron Cresswell) have done a little bit of light training. We are trying to find out if they are fit. We are trying to give them every opportunity to be fit. But they did not train with the team but they did a little bit with the fitness coaches. We will wait to assess them tomorrow to see how they are.”

He added: “If he is not fully fit I won’t take a risk. He’s not somebody I would do that with. Generally, if somebody isn’t ready to play then I won’t use them. The ‘but’ to that is that he is really important, for different reasons. We needed Yarmolenko’s quality to get us the goal the other day. We have been lacking that. But Mic plays in a different way for us, leads the line and brings other people into the game… we need Mic fully fit and firing.”

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A journalist with 10 years' experience of working on National newspapers, now chief reporter covering the club that I've loved since I was a boy. Upton Park remains the greatest football stadium ever built.