UNEXPECTED good news came from Nuno Espirito Santo’s press conference ahead of the Aston Villa visit this weekend. The Hammers’ head coach was answering questions ahead of Sunday’s Premier League fixture with the midlands side who currently sit third in the league and top of the form table with a very scary five wins out of five- making this a daunting challenge for the Irons.
Discussing the upcoming AFCON and the weakened squad the Irons will have once Aaron wan Bissaka and El Hadji-Malick Diouf leave, West Ham’s manager pulled no punches about the situation the pair of absentees will create in his squad:
“We’re going to miss them,” Espirito Santo said somewhat wistfully, (as reported by hayters.com)
“It’s something that we’re going to have to deal with as a squad, and then we have to find solutions inside of the squad.”
But then the Hammers head coach provided good news something akin to a rabbit from a hat:
“We have natural full-backs. Oliver [Scarles], this week is back in training so it’s another option for us.
But we’ll deal with that after [this game]. For now, they are involved in the game. They’ve been two players that have been helping the team so we’re going to miss them”.
Good news indeed-Ollie Scarles back in training ahead ofChristmas
Confirming that Ollie Scarles has made such good progress after surgery to fix his broken collar bone is good news indeed for a Hammers squad which would have been down to one first team full back – Kyle Walker Peters – plus academy youngster, last weekend’s debutant Ezra Mayers.
The news that Scarles will be in training and hopefully fit for the Christmas fixture list is a welcome fillip indeed for Nuno’s battling side.
For Ollie Scarles’ sake let us just hope Nuno has learned his lesson and now deploys Scarles in his more familiar left – sided role!
Scarles I feel will be on the bench.Looked perfectly fit and strong in training video.Banging in goals left right and center.
Give him some minutes it will help us out immensely