West Ham United manager David Moyes has provided a positive injury update on defensive trio Angelo Ogbonna, Kurt Zouma and Issa Diop.
Ogbonna has been sidelined since October with an ACL injury, while Zouma and Diop are both recovering from ankle injuries which they sustained earlier this month.
Speaking to the press ahead of the first leg of West Ham's Europa League semi-final with Eintracht Frankfurt, Moyes said: "Angelo Ogbonna's back – when I say 'back', I mean back in the building. He only came back this week so I would be amazed if Angelo played before the end of the season.
"Kurt Zouma is back doing some light work. He is ahead of schedule which is really good.
"Issa Diop is actually doing quite well as well. He feels a little better than we first hoped, so there's a bit of positivity around all those players. Because of that, it's given us a perk up because it won't be quite as long as we thought it might be."
Despite the positive update, Moyes has stated that he will not be tempted to rush back any of his players in time for Thursday's first leg, unless he is certain they are fully fit to feature.
"It's always better to make sure they're right. We'd only put players out if they'd trained and we thought they were fit and ready to play," the Scotsman added.
"I won't rush anybody back. We could do with some central defenders getting fit, but unfortunately that's the way it's been and we have to live with it. We're needing all hands on deck.
"We're getting to the business end and we could do with our best players. We could do with some players back, we've been quite short, but great credit to the players for how they've done to get to this stage.
"We've got most people who were available at the weekend available again, and we've got some people making good recoveries, but we don't know if they'll be ready yet."
Craig Dawson is currently the only senior central defender who is fully fit to play for the Hammers on Thursday, meaning Moyes could stick with the same back five that he used against Chelsea last weekend, which saw Ben Johnson and Aaron Cresswell join Dawson at centre-back.
Oliver Thomas
