West Ham United will be looking to continue their impressive run in this season’s Europa Conference League on Thursday when they take on Dutch side AZ Alkmaar.
The Hammers host Alkmaar in the first leg of their semi-final clash in Europe hoping to take an advantage into their trip to the Netherlands a week later, with West Ham eyeing their first European final since 1976.
Ahead of West Ham’s Europa Conference League semi-final first leg against Alkmaar, here is a look at West Ham’s current list of injury concerns.
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Gianluca Scamacca (knee)
Striker Gianluca Scamacca has not featured since March’s home win over AEK Larnaca due to a knee injury.
Following the issue, having had a number of knee problems in recent months, Scamacca underwent knee surgery last month.
Scamacca was expected to miss two to three months of action once the surgery took place, which at the time, would have meant he is set to miss the rest of the season, even if West Ham reached the final of the Europa Conference League, taking place on June 7.
However, speaking ahead of the defeat to Liverpool last month in his pre-match press conference last month, Moyes suggested that there was a chance Scamacca may recover in time to be involved this season, although he stated there was no guarantee.
“Maybe, maybe. We’ve not got him back,” said Moyes. “He’s had his operation, we’ve not got him back yet. With a bit of luck, my head is planning that I’m going to be here until June 7, and that’s what I’ve got to try and hope so who knows whether or not Gianluca might get back for that.
“At the moment, I would say he’s not doing anything, he’s recovering from his operation but you know, we’re probably six weeks away from that, maybe longer.”
Kurt Zouma (ankle)
In last month’s defeat to Palace, centre-back Zouma was forced off shortly after Jordan Ayew made it 1-1 in the game after suffering ligament damage to his ankle.
The Frenchman left the ground in a protective boot and missed Wednesday’s 3-0 loss to Manchester City with the issue.
Speaking ahead of the win over Manchester United in his pre-match press conference, Moyes said he did not want to put a timescale on Zouma’s recovery, given his recent history over recovering from issues ahead of schedule.
Moyes said: “No, we’re not going to give a sort of timeline on Kurt because we know he is a boy who does improve very quickly, but he’s also got an ankle injury, so we’ve not really got a date for it.”
Vladimir Coufal (hamstring)
Right-back Vladimir Coufal was forced off in the second half of the loss to City after pulling up with a hamstring issue after making a cross during the game at the Etihad Stadium.
Coufal has been a regular feature for the Hammers in their recent hectic schedule, starting each of their last eight games between April 8 and May 3, a timespan of just 25 days.
The defender missed the win over Man United with the issue and although Moyes did not give an expected return date on it, he did hope that it was not a serious issue.
“He won't be available for this game, so we will need to see how he is going forward,” Moyes told football.london . “He's hurt his hamstring, we're not quite exactly sure how bad, but we're hoping that it's not too bad.”
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