West Ham dealt late injury blow ahead of Watford clash, David Moyes will be gutted - opinion

West Ham United have been dealt a late injury blow concerning Arthur Masuaku ahead of this evening’s Premier League clash.

In recent comments cited by the Evening Standard, David Moyes revealed that the 28-year-old will be unavailable for selection for the fixture against Watford as a result of a knee injury, with the 58-year-old going on to reveal that the left-back will be seeing a specialist about his knock.

Speaking about the current state of his first-team squad, Moyes said: “We’ve had an injury to [Manuel] Lanzini and an injury to Arthur. They are both doing okay but Arthur is going to see a specialist about his knee.”

While the return of Aaron Cresswell has eased West Ham’s concerns at left-back, the loss of Masuaku ahead of the Watford game, and potentially for a much longer period, is sure to have left the 58-year-old Hammers boss gutted.

Indeed, the £4.5m-rated defender had been in decent form over his 11 Premier League appearances while filling in for Cresswell this season, scoring one goal, providing one assist and creating one big chance for his teammates, as well as making an average of 0.8 interceptions, 2.6 tackles, 0.9 clearances and winning an impressive five duels – at a success rate of 65% – per game.

These returns had seen the DR Congo international average a SofaScore match rating of 6.88, ranking him as Moyes’ 12th-best performer in the top flight of English football so far this term.

As such, while Masuaku is by no means a guaranteed starter at the London Stadium, the 28-year-old’s loss will nevertheless come as a blow to the Scottish manager and his side – as, should Cresswell pick up another injury, or simply just become fatigued with the club’s heavy schedule, the absence of Masuaku undoubtedly