West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui says he has no new fitness concerns heading into the Premier League opener against Aston Villa.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Thursday, the Hammers boss said his squad pretty much has a clean bill of health:
“Fortunately, at the moment, we don’t have bad news about the injuries, It’s true that we have to be aware about the kind of preparation that the players had, because they arrived late and so on, so some are more ready than others.”
“So, we have to be aware about this, and tomorrow (Friday) we are going to have more information about this but until now, I think that all of them, they are going to be ready.”
One player won’t be available for West Ham
Edson Alvarez is the only member of the first-team squad who is not expected to be in contention for the Villa fixture.
The Mexican international picked up a major hamstring injury playing for his country at the Copa America against Jamaica in late June. It was anticipated that he would miss the start of the campaign but no estimated date has been given for his return.
Wan-Bissaka is not expected to start
While summer signing Aaron Wan-Bissaka is fit, Lopetegui did suggest that the fullback may not feature in the starting lineup this weekend.
Since arriving from Manchester United, the fullback has only had a couple of training sessions with his new teammates and he may need to be brought up to speed before getting more game time.
Vladimir Coufal is likely to keep his place for now but it is a good problem for Lopetegui to have. The Spaniard has said that he wants two players for each position and he definitely has two strong options at right-back.
