West Ham’s top scorer Jarrod Bowen remains a major doubt for next week’s Europa League second leg against Sevilla.
England hopeful Bowen has undergone scans on the heel injury he suffered in last weekend’s defeat at Liverpool, which forced him to miss the 1-0 first-leg loss in Spain, but the club are still in the dark about the extent of the problem.
“I have no idea at the moment,” said manager David Moyes. “We’re still trying to clear up exactly the injury.
“In all the scans and information we have it does not look too bad, but his action coming off the pitch at Anfield made it look more serious than we thought. And that has not added up.
“Since then Jarrod is slightly improving but not as fast as we hoped. We did not think it was anything serious. So we are still trying to get to the bottom of it.
“Maybe we’ll get back and Jarrod is OK. It could just be one of those things.”
Moyes confirmed on Friday afternoon that Bowen would definitely not be available for the home Premier League match against Aston Villa on Sunday.
Bowen’s absence was keenly felt at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium as West Ham missed two gilt-edged chances, through Nikola Vlasic and Manuel Lanzini.
Instead it was a fine finish from Moroccan forward Munir which gave six-time winners Sevilla the slender advantage in the last-16 tie.
Nevertheless, right-back Ben Johnson believes the Hammers can prolong their European adventure.
“Of course, Niko had a chance and Manu had a chance and there were plenty of other opportunities and openings that didn’t just quite come off for us,” he said.
“It’s unfortunate, but at least we have another opportunity in the second leg to put it right. Our fans will be behind us and hopefully we can get an early goal and see what we can do.
“Of course, the away goal isn’t part of it now, but we would have liked to have got a goal.
“But I think we’re a good threat, and hopefully that will stand us in good stead.”
