West Ham have injury concerns at full back going into Saturday's Premier League clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, David Moyes has revealed.
Ben Johnson is definitely out of contention while Aaron Cresswell, who was replaced midway through Wednesday's 1-1 draw with Tottenham will aloo face a late fitness test.And there is also a possibility that Gianluca Scamacca may not have recovered from his recent illness in time to be available for selection.
“Ben Johnson is not available," confirmed the boss during his pre-match press conference on Friday lunchtime. "We’re still waiting to see how Gianluca is and we’re still waiting to see how Aaron Cresswell is - it will be late decisions on both of them.”
However Moyes has hinted that his final signing of the summer transfer window, Lucas Paqueta, is in line to make his first start for the club in West Ham's second derby in the space of 72 hours.
"Settling in is always going to be difficult for any player coming in,” said the boss. "His English is very limited at the moment but overall, he trained yesterday and we want to get him involved. You could see the impact he had on Wednesday.
“We also want to be fair - we don’t want to be pushing someone in and expecting something special right away. We want to give him a chance to get to know the players, how we play, and the Premier League. Getting him to know how the League can be is probably the biggest thing.”
Even though the club committed to spending in the region of £150million during the window, Moyes suggested that his squad was still one or two players short of what he would have liked. "We still probably needed some more," he added.
We'll have more for you from Moyes' press conference later this afternoon.
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