Captain Declan Rice, centre-back Nayef Aguerd and midfielder Tomáš Souček are all expected to be available for the match against Manchester United on Sunday after going down with sickness on the day of the Manchester City game earlier in the week.
Commenting in his pre-match presser the manager made it clear he was very hopeful they would take to the pitch after they returned to the training ground on Friday.
“They’ve been in today,” the manager confirmed. “Today was the first time we’ve had the chance to assess them – they’ve done a little bit of training, so I’m hoping that they’ll all be available for the weekend.
“One other player was sent home this morning and we’ve got another one who just said he didn’t feel so good, so we’ve just got to hope that we can contain it.
“It looks as if it’s more like a sort of sickness and the players are getting over it quite quickly.”
Two players who will miss out against the Red Devils, however, are Kurt Zouma and Vladimír Coufal.
Zouma suffered an ankle injury in last weekend’s 4-3 defeat at Crystal Palace, while Coufal was withdrawn during the second period at Etihad Stadium after feeling a hamstring issue.
The boss says he will have to wait to see how long the pair are sidelined for.
“We’re not going to give a timeline on Kurt, because we know he is a boy who does improve very quickly,” he added. “But he’s also got an ankle injury so we’ve got no real date on that at the moment.
“Vlad won’t be available for this game. He’s hurt his hamstring and we’re not sure exactly how bad it is. We’re hoping it’s not too bad.”
Thank goodness all seems to be well. We reported yesterday insiders believed the three would be ready but of course Zouma and Coufal being absent will be bitter blows