West Ham’s European hopes have suffered a blow after scans revealed that Kurt Zouma’s ankle injury could rule out the defender for the rest of the season.
Zouma has not travelled to France for the Europa League quarter-final second leg against Lyon on Thursday and is unlikely to make a swift return. The commanding centre-back was forced off during the first half of West Ham’s 2-0 defeat by Brentford last Sunday and tests have indicated that the France international is facing at least a month on the sidelines.
“We’re still getting him checked fully,” David Moyes said. “It’s a really big blow, but it happens in football.”
West Ham, who drew 1-1 with Lyon in the first leg last Thursday, are clinging on to hope that the initial prognosis is overly pessimistic. Zouma has been a key player since his £29.8m move from Chelsea last summer and Moyes will be desperate to have him back for the run-in, especially as Angelo Ogbonna is out for the season with a knee injury.
The prospect of being without his favoured centre-back pairing against Lyon will be a major worry for Moyes. Craig Dawson has done well since coming in for Ogbonna but there are concerns over Issa Diop’s form. Diop struggled after replacing Zouma in the 29th minute against Brentford and was at fault when Bryan Mbeumo opened the scoring.
The worry for West Ham, who are sixth in the Premier League and still in with a chance of qualifying for the Champions League, is that they were leaky when Ogbonna and Zouma were out at the same time earlier this season. Dawson and Diop were an unconvincing partnership in central defence, though Moyes backed the latter to step up against Lyon.
Another complication for Moyes is that West Ham are also without Aaron Cresswell against Lyon after the influential left-back was controversially sent off during the first leg. Ben Johnson is in line to fill in for the 32-year-old.
Moyes could tweak his system to counter Lyon’s threats. A back three is a possibility and there is a chance that Declan Rice could drop back from midfield to bolster West Ham’s defence. “Declan’s played there before and would give us a different dimension if we had to play him there,” Moyes said. “We’ve got that possibility but we know he’s a big miss if we take him out of the middle of the pitch.”
Moyes is confident that West Ham will reach the last four. “We’ve got a great chance,” he said. “We’ve got a wee bit of toughness about us. Let’s see what we can do when we’ve got 11 men.”
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Michail Antonio will lead the line for West Ham but has scored once in his past 17 games. “I’m disappointed I’ve not scored in a while – this is the longest streak I’ve had of not scoring a goal,” the striker said. “But it’s about being a team player and that’s what I’m doing, I’m bringing the team together. I feel I’m helping the team.”
Lyon, 10th in Ligue 1, have injury worries over their goalkeeper Anthony Lopes and their key midfielders Tanguy Ndombele and Houssem Aouar. Ndombele, on loan from Spurs, scored Lyon’s equaliser in the first leg. Lucas Paquetá is a doubt after he did not train.
