Pellegrini gives injury update on Noble and others

Manuel Pellegrini denied Mark Noble was substituted yesterday because he was injured and insisted it was because of the risk of his yellow card.

Pellegrini told reporters post-match who asked if he was injured “No, it was because of his yellow card, I think it was a risk for him to continue when Fulham was trying to play more attacking. At that moment I thought it was right to change him for Obiang and I think Pedro did really well.”

Match commentators suggested Noble was hobbling and looked in a bit of discomfort when he came off at sixty-two minutes. When asked about the January transfer window admitted that four to five of West Ham long-term injuries are unlikely to play this season.

The West Ham manager told reporters “Well  I think that, this team, we are playing with eight players injured. Now we will see in January what will happen, we need to decide but for the moment I am very happy with the squad. We have four or five long injuries to players who I don’t think will play this season.”

We already knew that Carlos Sanchez and Yarmolenko were unlikely to return this season with expected return dates in April next year but Pellegrini’s comments which are more worrying when taken at face value, they seem to suggest that Manuel Lanzini and Ryan Fredericks and one other could also not feature this season in the manager’s opinion. The only other player with no return date on the reliable PhysioRoom at the moment is Jack Wilshere which might suggest his recovery is much slower than first suggested.

Luca Perez is expected to return in December while Winston Reid and Marko Arnautovic are expected to return in January.