Declan Rice among West Ham players expected to be fit to face Manchester United

By Andy Sims, PA

West Ham should be boosted by the returns of Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek and Nayef Aguerd for Sunday’s visit of Manchester United.

David Moyes’ first-choice trio were absent for the 3-0 defeat at Manchester City after a sickness bug swept through the Hammers’ camp.

All three travelled to Manchester only to be sent home a few hours before kick-off.

But Hammers boss Moyes is confident the midfield partnership of Rice and Soucek, along with key centre-half Aguerd, will be available at the weekend.

However, Moyes revealed another couple of players have also come down with illness.

“They’ve been in today and done a little bit of training,” said Moyes. “We are hoping all three will be available for the weekend.

“But we had one other player who was sent home this morning and another who said he didn’t feel so good.

“We’ve just got to hope we can contain it. It looks like it’s more like sickness and players are getting over it quite quickly.”

Moyes will still be without Kurt Zouma, who has an ankle injury, and fellow defender Vladimir Coufal, who tweaked a hamstring at City.

The Scot, who turned 60 last week, is juggling the Premier League relegation battle with a Europa Conference League semi-final against AZ Alkmaar, the first leg of which takes place next Thursday.

“I’ve always said the Premier League is the priority,” he said. “But when you are starting to talk about a semi-final in Europe you’re talking about another decision.

“If we play to our best we will give any team a very good match. If we do that then we will gain the extra points we need.”