'Not too good' - West Ham missing two key men for Leeds United clash at Elland Road

Maxwel Cornet, who joined from Burnley in August, has not featured since October 1 and has suffered a series of setbacks in his recovery from a calf problem. Last week, manager David Moyes admitted the player could need surgery as a last resort.

Meanwhile, Kurt Zouma had knee surgery in November and is back in training but an illness has delayed his return and is likely to keep him out of action at Elland Road.

Ahead of Friday’s loss to Brentford, Moyes said of Cornet: “Maxwel has kept breaking down with his calf injury. He’s been to see a specialist in France, we may do an injection, or if this doesn’t work it may end up going to an operation on his calf at the moment, we’re just not seeing Maxi get back that quick.

"We’re just not seeing any signs of him, he’s not back training at the moment. He’s working in the gym or seeing specialists about his calf.

“Every time he’s come back, he’s broke down with it or he’s felt as if he’s not been able to train with it. He’s been to see several specialists, we’ve tried some different injections, we’ve tried different things to get it going but at the moment, we’re not getting any joy with it."

He did provide a more positive update on Zouma, adding: “Kurt’s doing really, the virus he had a week and a half ago has probably put him back, where as if he hadn’t have had the virus, he probably would have been in contention [against Brentford].

“Now, we’ve got to try and get him up because of his fitness levels. His knee feels really good and he feels much freer with it. He’s not trained with us yet. He’s been out on the grass, he’s doing bits and pieces but he’s not quite ready to start training with us probably in the next few days with a bit of luck.”