Marko Arnautovic looks odds on to make his Hammers return against Wolves at Molineux tomorrow night (Tues).
Manuel Pellegrini steered clear of giving cast iron assurances but spent a bit of time on discussing his expectations of the striker and other players in the squad ahead of the game.
The reality is surely though that the Austrian has to be included tomorrow or there will be many questions asked following the controversial events of the weekend when he was offered a new deal by the club.
That almost certainly included a rise and was followed by the 29 year old declaring that this is home and he wants to do everything he can to help lift the Hammers up the table.
Should he miss a second game in four days so soon after the new deal there will surely be many very difficult questions to be answered and with a victory badly needed after recent games his omission seems as impossible as it gets.
Speaking to the official site the manager said: “I’m happy for us that Marko has finished his issue and he will stay here and I hope we will have the player that he can be in the next games.
“I expect that from every player, not only Marko Arnautovic, that every time they play a game, to see their performance is as high as that player can give you. That, for me, is the most important thing in the way I evaluate the player.
“If you know a player can play eight points [out of ten] every game, he must play seven points or six points, but not two. That’s why, for every player it’s exactly the same.
“Marko has already demonstrated what he can do. He did in the second part of last season, he made an important difference, and now I hope he can do it again between now and the end of the season.
“There are a lot of things that affect the players and that’s why I don’t want to continue talking about that because we see they are excuses and I don’t want to have excuses.
“We made a mistake and we lost against Wimbledon and I hope once the Transfer Window is closed, not only Marko Arnautovic, but other players who are also hearing some offers will be concentrated on what we must do.
“For now, we must concentrate on Wolverhampton.”