David Moyes has confirmed that West Ham will be without a number of first-team players for the visit of FSCB on Thursday night due to injury.
The Hammers started the season with an injury crisis at the back which led to Ben Johnson being deployed as a makeshift centre-back in the absence of Angelo Ogbonna, Craig Dawson and summer signing Nayef Aguerd.
Since the start of the season, Moyes has since lost Johnson, Aaron Cresswell and striker Gianluca Scamacca, although the latter could return on Thursday night after missing the past two games.
READ MORE: West Ham press conference LIVE: David Moyes on FCSB, Thomas Tuchel and Hammers' injury updates
Moyes was asked specifically on Wednesday about the chance of Scamacca starting at the London Stadium, to which he replied: "He [Scamacca] only really started training so I'm going to work towards him getting back if we can. We hope to get him back but he's really not been well for ten days so if he's fully fit I'd be very surprised but certainly he trained today and he's getting closer to fitness."
Dawson, who has been missing since sustaining a thigh injury in pre-season, was spotted back at training on Wednesday afternoon, though Moyes poured cold water on the suggestion that he could feature on Thursday night given how long he's been out for.
"Craig Dawson started back training and you probably saw him today. He's back out, he's not been out training long, he's still sort of finding his way back in but he's getting back in amongst it now. Ben Johnson is not training yet. He's still out. Aaron Cresswell is not training yet either so he's not available. Tomas Soucek had picked up a foot injury from the game at Chelsea. So Tomas could be a question mark for me. So that's what I've got at the moment."
Aguerd is another one who will not feature this week after having surgery on his ankle after an injury picked up in pre-season. Though Moyes did give some good news in terms of his recovery and what is next for the defender.
"Yeah," Moyes said when asked if Aguerd is a long-term absentee. "He returned back on Tuesday. He's been away, he's now out of his boot. He's fine. He's actually seen the specialist to get the six weeks go ahead today for the next part of it. So hopefully that's all good. He looks good at the moment, he's come back sort of ready to go."
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