West Ham Boss Slaven Bilic has eased fears over his team'sgrowing injury list by naming a much stronger squad to visit Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday.
The Hammers have endured a torrid start to the season, and it was made even worse after a 5-1 demolition at the hands of Arsenal at the London Stadium last time out, leaving the club just one point off of the relegation zone ahead of a tough few weeks in the league.
The east London club face fellow relegation battlers Hull City and Burnely in the coming weeks, as well as challenging visits to Swansea City and Leicester City. But before that, Bilic's side travel to Merseyside to take on Jurgen Klopp's title hopeful Reds.
And to the delight of the West Ham faithful, Bilic has a much stronger squad to choose a side from, after announcing in his pre-match press conference that defender Aaron Cresswell and winger Michail Antonio are in contention to start the game at Anfield.
ï—£ "Antonio and Cresswell have been training and are available for Sunday. We hoped Cheikhou would be back but it has come too soon." #COYI
Despite it being too early for Cheikhou Kouyate to make his return to the side, Bilic wrote in his column in theEvening Standardthat striker Andy Carroll should play some part, but the club are wary not to push the former England international back into action too soon.
"It was good especially to see Andy Carroll back on the pitch," said Bilic.
"Hopefully he will be fit for some part of the game this weekend ” but we have to be careful with him."
The last time the Hammers played Liverpool in the league at Anfield, the visitors came away with an impressive 3-0 victory, but Bilic knows his side will have to be on top of their form and hope for an off day from Klopp's in-form men for a repeat of that scoreline.