Kurt Zouma is back in the West Ham starting XI for today’s game against Newcastle as one of three changes to the team.
Despite the furore around his animal cruelty, Zouma was again set to start at Leicester last weekend only to withdraw from the first-choice XI shortly before kick off with stomach problems.
Zouma trained for the last two days ahead of the meeting with Newcastle at the London Stadium.
“He's better, but it's taken him a couple of days to get over it,” said boss David Moyes. “He had a quite bad illness. He's trained the last couple of days so I'm hoping that he'll be available.
“We want him to concentrate on his training. We're hoping that we can keep him at those levels of performances. Hopefully he can focus on his football and we'll give him as much support as we can before we get him ready back to his best.”
Vladimir Coufal and Manuel Lanzini miss out due to injury, with Ryan Fredericks and Said Benrahma back in the XI.
West Ham XI: Fabianski; Fredericks, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell; Rice, Soucek; Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals; Antonio.
Subs: Areola, Alese, Diop, Johnson, Noble, Kral, Chesters, Vlasic, Yarmolenko.
Date: Saturday, February 19, 12.30pm GMT
Venue: London Stadium
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
TV channel: BT Sport
West Ham squad from: Fabianski, Martin, Randolph, Areola, Fredericks, Diop, Zouma, Dawson, Alese, Baptise, Ashby, Johnson, Coufal, Cresswell, Noble, Rice, Soucek, Kral, Lanzini, Vlasic, Yarmolenko, Benrahma, Fornals, Bowen, Antonio, Perkins.
Injured: Ogbonna (knee), Masuaku (knee)
