Watford without three key players

Watford are likely to be without three key players this weekend as they face West Ham.

On Thursday afternoon the club announced that Troy Deeney will be out of action for at least two months after undergoing a knee operation, but head coach Javi Gracia has also since revealed that both Abdoulaye Doucoure and Roberto Pereyra have not trained with the team since last weekend’s defeat to Everton and are unlikely to be involved this weekend, unless they can pass late fitness tests.

Speaking a pre-match press conference the Watford manager revealed:

“We have other players waiting and I trust all of them. We are ready to compete without Troy. We’ll miss him, we are waiting until he’s back, but we have to be ready to compete against West Ham. All of them are important players for us, but you don’t decide the moment when the players are injured and then you have to be ready to compete with the players you have. I think it’s a good moment to show how good we are as a squad and for other players to show their quality.”