West Ham pre-match press conferences are not usually known for revelations over player fitness, especially with the normally inscrutable Nuno Espírito Santo traditionally keeping his cards very close to his chest lest he give any advantage to opponents over his likely starting line up.
However a visibly relieved West Ham manager gave some positive updates on the fitness of key players this afternoon which will be reassuring for supporters, hitherto fearing the worst over reports that Dinos Mavropanos might be facing a month out following his collision with Southampton’s goal keeper last weekend.
Goal line collision which left Dinos Mavropanos clutching his leg
Nuno also dealt with reports concerning Jarrod Bowen’s ankle, injured in training this week, which had been adding to consternation.
When pressed on the normal ‘we have several players suffering knocks‘ opener, West Ham’s manager, for once, elaborated on specifics on the West Ham You Tube channel, even intimating that Hammers defender Mavropanos might only be out for a solitary game:
“Dinos, Joel, Keiber – we have some issues there but he [Mavropanos] has been training on the grass today, so we’ll see. We’ve been very lucky’.
And responding to the stories over Jarrod Bowen’s ankle injury picked up in training, Nuno further reassured that the Irons skipper would be good to go tomorrow:
“Jarrod twisted his ankle in training and he was in treatment for a couple of days. He joined us for training today.”
Supporters would have hoped to see the return of Joel Veltman who missed last weekend’s loss to Southampton – one of the perils of giving a high volume of games to a 34 year old – but other than that, Nuno’s disclosure brought pretty good news all round.