Moyes delivers six player injury update
David Moyes gave a detailed injury update in his virtual press conference ahead of West Ham’s fixture with Sheffield United. The manager was asked about the availability of six players by reporters enquiring about – Angelo Ogbonna, Issa Diop, Michail Antonio, Andriy Yarmolenko, Fabián Balbuena and Jarrod Bowen.
Moyes confirmed that Ogbonna suffered a high ankle sprain in a challenge with Anthony Martial, but Diop escaped a concussion following a later clash of heads with Anthony Martial.
When asked to explain the injury situation with Ogbonna, Moyes explained: “First of all I’d say it is a big blow because he’s been magnificent in the games he has played and his leadership has been really important to us as well. I don’t have a timeframe [on how long he will be unavailable] just now and I wouldn’t want to put one on it either, even if I got it, because obviously we want to get him back quickly.
“My understanding is it doesn’t need surgery at the moment so that’s a good thing, but it’s getting checked by the specialist and I might know more in the next few days.”
The manager was next asked about Issa Diop. “First and foremost, Issa is fine and he was fine immediately after and he actually came in and did some training the next day, so I have no problem with Issa as far as that concern goes,” he explained.
Diop is expected to be available to face Sheffield United, and Moyes also confirmed forward Antonio is on track to be involved after recovering from the fatigue that saw him miss Tuesday’s trip to Old Trafford.
Asked about Antonio he replied “He is doing well, he’s done a little bit on the grass and we’re trying to get him back quickly, so hopefully he will be very close for the weekend.”
On Yarmolenko, the manager claimed “Yarmolenko has a got a little bit of a knee injury we’re going to assess so we know exactly what that is,”
On Balbuena he revealed “Balbuena actually picked up a bit of a calf strain in the warm-up [on Tuesday] and that’s the reason we didn’t use him in the game. I’m not sure at the moment yet [if he will be OK for Monday].
On Bowen he added “Jarrod was fine. We had to make a tactical switch because of what we had at the time, losing Issa, so we changed things around tactically. Jarrod is all fine.”
