Michail Antonio is recovering from a hamstring operation at the end of last season. He came through 70 minutes with the Under 23’s on Friday and expected to be available for Southampton. Bilic said in his presser “He is and was ahead of schedule. He is a good healer, a bit of a monster phyiscally. So, the fact is he is ahead which means he is playing for the U23s tonight and will miss United away but has trained with us since Monday. Tonight, he is playing and he should be in the squad at least for Southampton, but that was the plan all along.”
Estimated Return Date: 19th August
Manuel Lanzini suffered a knock in training in Germany and has been recovering from a knee injury. He is taking Nurofen to reduce the swelling but should be available for the Southampton or Newcastle game depending how many days he trains next week. Bilic said in his press conference “Lanzini should be back, hopefully, after Southampton so maybe for Newcastle. If not, then straight after the international break.”
Estimated Return Date: 26th August
Cheik Kouyate suffered a freak knee injury in Austria pre-season, he expected to return for Newcastle away. Bilic said “Cheikhou should be back, hopefully, after Southampton so maybe for Newcastle. If not, then straight after the international break.”
Estimated Return Date 26th August.
Andy Carroll has been suffering from a mystery groin strain, he is expected to be fit and return for the first home game against Huddersfield at the London Stadium.
At the pre match press conference Slav said “Of course I wanted him to be fit now but it’s not the case but it looks like there is a goal that is very near. If it goes like this before the break and we hope it does, I don’t know, maybe we will see him before the international break.”
Estimated Return Date: 11th September
Aaron Creswell, Winston Reid, Diafra Sakho, Angelo Ogbonna, Edimilson Fernandesand Mark Noble have all recovered from injuries and are available for selection for today’s game.
Although Sofiane Feghouli is reportedly ‘injured’ he is travelling to Turkey today to finalise his departure from West Ham.
