Three missing for Larnaca test

  • by Staff Writer
  • Wednesday, 15th March 2023

David Moyes had confirmed he expects to be missing at least three first team squad members for the visit of Cypriot side Larnaca on Thursday evening.

In addition to Lukasz Fabianski, who is likely to miss the remainder of the season, Moyes revealed Vladimir Coufal and Michail Antonio are also likely to be absentees for the second leg clash, into which West Ham take a 2-0 lead.


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"Coufal still has a problem with the sole of his foot," said Moyes, speaking during his pre-match press conference on Wednesday lunchtime. "Antonio has a bit of a calf injury which he picked up in Cyprus last week."

And asked whether he intended to make wholesale changes for the game, the boss confirmed that any changes will be made with respect to the opposition and competition.

"We plan to change a little bit, but ultimately we need to be ready for the game," he revealed. "We want to qualify and we never take anything for granted. We don’t want to give the opponent any opportunity to get back in the game."

Looking ahead to the game, Moyes insisted that a run in the Conference League remained a priority - even though the Hammers continue to struggle in the Premier League, where only goal difference is keeping the team out of the relegation zone currently.

"We’re expecting a big crowd," he said. "We’ve had great crowds over the last two seasons, the West Ham fans have enjoyed the big European games and they’ll all be hoping we can get to the quarter-finals and further as well.

"That would be great. We really want to get to the final, but we can’t do that unless we get to the quarter-finals first and that’s what we want to do [tomorrow].

"It is a good opportunity. We worked hard last year to finish seventh in the league to get us to the Conference League and we’ve enjoyed it. We’ve still got a job to do and it’s important, it really is."

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