West Ham will be missing two key players for their match against Manchester City this weekend, as Pep Guardiola gathers his squad for training to determine availability. After a victory over Leicester last weekend, City needs to maintain their momentum against a struggling West Ham team, which will be without their captain and starting goalkeeper at the Etihad. Lukas Fabianski will not play due to a concussion he sustained on Boxing Day, and Alphonse Areola is expected to take his place in goal. Lopetegui has announced that key forward Jarrod Bowen will not be fit to play due to the injury he sustained during the match against Liverpool on Sunday. He mentioned, “We need to wait ten days to meet the Premier League protocol for Fabianski; after that, he will be ready to assist us, but we trust Alphonse and Wes.” He added, “[Bowen] will definitely be unavailable for a few days.” Unfortunately for us, he has an injury. He played for 30 minutes despite it, but now he needs to recover. It’s not great news for us, but we believe he will put in a lot of effort for his recovery due to his strong character. “I would rather not specify a timeframe, but we’ll observe how things progress.” Jarrod is a key player and our captain, but we need to find alternatives, and it’s the responsibility of the other players to demonstrate their readiness. We hope Jarrod recovers swiftly, while also observing the other players. City are dealing with their own injury issues, as Nathan Ake had to leave the match against Leicester due to an injury for the second consecutive game. John Stones is injured, and Ederson and Matheus Nunes have missed the last two matches. Ruben Dias was slated for a three to four week break before the Aston Villa loss before Christmas, so Guardiola will provide an update on his recovery along with the status of the four players mentioned above on Friday. Rodri and Oscar Bobb will certainly be absent from the match on Saturday.
