West Ham United manager David Moyes has said that Gianluca Scamacca is ‘getting closer to fitness’ ahead of the club’s Europa Conference League opener.
The £35.5m summer signing hasn’t been included in either of the last two matchday squads for London derbies against Tottenham Hotspur or Chelsea as a result of an illness.
The 23-year-old made appearances in all four Premier League games prior to the Spurs clash and also scored in each leg of the Hammers’ qualifier with Viborg to make it into the group stages which commence on Thursday.
Speaking ahead of the side’s opening game at home to Basel, Moyes shared a positive update on Scamacca’s condition.
As seen on the WHUFC website he said:
“Scamacca has only just started training but we’re going to try and get him back, if we can. He’s trained today and he’s getting closer to fitness.”
Whether that means the Italian centre-forward is in line to feature in Europe when West Ham host FCSB on Thursday remains to be seen, but all signs point toward him at least being available for this weekend’s visit of Newcastle.
While Scamacca is yet to score in the Premier League, he has only started once, and given that he netted 16 Serie A goals in 36 appearances averaging one every 135 minutes last term, it shouldn’t be long before he’s scoring regularly in claret and blue and his return to fitness will certainly be welcome as Moyes looks to juggle his squad through a busy period.
