Moyes gives Antonio update

Hopes are rising that Michail Antonio will be available for the crunch match against Spurs at the weekend.

The Irons meet their north London rivals at the London Stadium on Sunday lunchtime with the No 30 again having been missing since the game against Fulham.

Moyes claimed fatigue was his problem ahead of the Sheffield United game but his comments at today’s presser for the visit of Spurs suggests that the hamstring kssues remain a problem’

Reports have said that he has felt a tightening in that aewa but the manager explained he was hopeful rthat he’s be back for the 12 noon game .

Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Moyes revealed that Antonio has been back on the training pitch in recent days and showing good signs that he is nearing a return to action.

Should he not be it’s probably fair to expect that Jesse Lingard and Jarrod Bowen are likely to carry the main attacking threat but Moyes is clearly hopeful for Michail.

He explained: “Michail has a good chance of being available for Sunday because he’s had three days training.

“We’ve always been careful with Mich in trying to get him right, but he was close for the last game. We didn’t quite think it was worth the risk.

“He’s not been training with the group every day, but he’s been doing some individual work and hopefully we’ll know a bit more tomorrow.”

Moyes said that performance was a marker of his team’s adaptability and he was impressed with his players’ ability to cover their missing focal point.

“Sometimes that’s part of your job as a coach,” he added. “You can’t just buy somebody in when you lose a player to injury. You have to find solutions within your squad.

“We’ve had to do it a couple of times since we’ve been here and I thought Jarrod played really well in the game in midweek.

“It’s not as if it’s strange for Jarrod, because he’s played as a centre-forward for Hull City many times as well.

“That’s part of having a good squad and you need the squad to be flexible nowadays. Having people who can play in two or three different positions is always good – hopefully we don’t need to use them [in that way] too much, but when you do have a few injuries you have to.”