Michail Antonio is set to miss out on West Ham's fourth-round FA Cup tie with Kidderminster Harriers after landing back in London just 24 hours before the Hammers trip to the midlands.
West Ham boss David Moyes has hit out at the international schedule after Antonio featured in three matches in six days before returning to the Hammers only a day before their next fixture.
The Hammers head to Aggborough Stadium for a 12:30pm kick-off against National League North side Kidderminster and are set to do so without the services of their only senior striker. Moyes' team should be able to cope without Antonio against the non-league outfit but with Watford looming on Tuesday evening the 31-year-old is unlikely to have had much rest during the Premier League's winter break.
“Michail will arrive back today from Jamaica which, as you can imagine, is not particularly good,” said Moyes.
“It is a terrible situation. Players will be away and others will be at the Africa Cup of Nations, meaning their clubs have not got them, but this was an international week.
“The scheduling of all the games is really tough for the people doing it. People are trying to squeeze games [in] and the people who get affected are the players, first and foremost. But if you’re a club paying their wages you would say it is hardly correct to get your player back at 11am on Friday to play the Saturday at 12.30pm.”
Antonio's situation is exacerbated by West Ham's failure to bring in a striker during the transfer window but Moyes insisted he was happy with the support he received from the board in January.
"The board were terrific through the January window and they have been since I have been here," Moyes said. "They have supported us greatly and made funds available and we tried to use the money as best we could but we just could not get a couple of players I really liked so I would rather save the money than waste it."
The manager added: "We were always trying to add to what we thought we could do. It would hard to get better than Jarrod if we're talking about another striker.
"I didn't just want backup, I wanted real competition. I could have easily gone out and bought backup, easily. I wanted people who were actually going to take other people's jerseys and challenge them."
