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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Malik Ouzia

Kurt Zouma out of West Ham’s Europa League clash at Lyon due to ankle injury

West Ham have suffered a major blow in their quest to reach the Europa League semi-finals, with key defender Kurt Zouma ruled out of Thursday night’s quarter-final second leg against Lyon.

The French international was forced off during Sunday’s 2-0 Premier League defeat to Brentford after twisting his ankle and was facing a race against time to be fit for the trip to his homeland.

Zouma had a scan on the injury on Monday and has now been ruled out of the clash.

The tie is finely poised at 1-1 following last week’s first leg at the London Stadium, in which the Hammers took the lead through Jarrod Bowen despite going down to ten men after Aaron Cresswell’s red card, only for Tottenham loanee Tanguy Ndombele to equalise for the visitors.

Cresswell is suspended for the second leg, with Zouma’s absence adding to David Moyes’ defensive problems.

Angelo Ogbonna remains out with an ACL injury, so Issa Diop is likely to partner Craig Dawson at centre-half, while Ben Johnson is expected to fill in for Cresswell at left-back.

The possibility of a showpiece semi-final against Barcelona lies in wait for Moyes’ side, though the Catalan giants also have work to do to reach the last four, having drawn 1-1 with Eintracht Frankfurt in their quarter-final first leg last week.

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