David Moyes: West Ham’s Gianluca Scamacca to miss Europa Conference League final
By Andy Sims, PA
West Ham boss David Moyes has confirmed Gianluca Scamacca will miss the Europa Conference League final next month.
Italian striker Scamacca, the £30.5million summer signing from Sassuolo, underwent knee surgery in April but there were hopes he could return before the end of the season.
However, Moyes has ruled the 24-year-old out of the final against Fiorentina in Prague on June 7.
“I see him being nowhere near it. He’s not back training and not back,” said Moyes.
“He’s still doing his rehab in Italy just now, so I don’t expect to see him back before then, no.
“He had his operation about four weeks ago, so he has still a few weeks of rehab to do but hopefully, he will be back ready at the start of pre-season.”
The Hammers face relegation-threatened Leicester on the final day of the Premier League season, knowing a win on Sunday could lift them as high as 12th, above Chelsea.
That would not be a bad result from a campaign which looked at times destined to end in relegation.
“I take every game one at a time, that’s all we can ever do,” added Moyes. “It’s a chance to get your league place higher up and we’re all well aware of the value of that in the Premier League.
“If you’d given me this position a few weeks ago I’d have snapped your hand off because we go into the last day without any real problems and, more importantly we go into it knowing we’ve got a cup final in a week or so’s time.”
Leicester need a victory and a favour from Bournemouth at Everton in order to stay up.
“I’m glad it’s a game where it’s not us needing to win it, because it was always a hard-looking game,” said Moyes. “They’ve had a great team over recent seasons, they really have.
“I think it’s a bit of a surprise to everyone that they’re in the position they are in. They have got some top players and we’re going to have to defend well and deal with it well. Hopefully, we can.”