Double striker boost for Bilic ahead of Southampton test
- by Staff Writer
- Thursday, 4th February 2016
Slaven Bilic has been handed a major boost ahead of this weekend's trip to St Mary's.
The Hammers boss confirmed this morning that he expects his match day squad to be bolstered by the return of Andy Carroll - who has been sidelined with injury since before Christmas - and new signing Emmanuel Emenike, who trained with his new team mates for the first time this morning after his work permit was rubber-stamped."Andy is back," Bilic told the assembled media at this morning's pre-match press conference. "He has been training with us since Monday. He has been doing individual training for ten days so he might be in the squad. We're going to see today and we will assess him tomorrow, but he should be involved.
"Emekine is training with us today for the first time. He's a naturally fit player but again I would like to see a bit of him on the pitch. He only arrived in England yesterday because of the work permit stuff, but he's in today and is going to train with us. We're going to see."
And there was further good news for Bilic with confirmation that central defender Angelo Ogbonna - who missed the 2-0 win over Aston VIlla on Tuesday night with a heavy cold - is also likely to return for the trip South.
"Ogbonna had a bit of flu and missed he game against Villa," confirmed Bilic. "He's a bit better today and we're going to see him in training tomorrow, which will be good. He could be in the squad for Southampton, but we don't know about that."
With view to other injury issues, Bilic confirmed that there were no major problems to emerge from the Villa test - whilst his attacking options are set to be boosted further imminently with the return of two very important figures.
"We have a couple of other knocks but they should be alright for Satruday," he added. "We'll have to see in training today. [Diafra] Sakho and [Manuel] Lanzini are still out but both should be back within a couple of weeks time, maximum."
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