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West Ham have injury boost with Arnautovic racing to be fit for Liverpool game

  /  autty

West Ham forward Marko Arnautovic could be fit to face Liverpool on Monday.

The Austrian, who signed a new contract last week amid interest from China, went off injured during the 3-0 defeat at Wolves on Tuesday night.

There were concerns Arnautovic had suffered a broken foot, but the injury is not as serious as first feared.

On whether Arnautovic could make the home clash with the leaders, manager Manuel Pellegrini said: 'We are not sure, we need to see. We have 72 hours more for him to make it.'

The squad returned to training ahead of Monday's visit of Liverpool to the London Stadium.

Playmaker Manuel Lanzini is back in light training with the first team after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in the summer.

Despite their recent blip, the team appeared in light spirits as Lanzini was joined by keeper Adrian and strikers Lucas Perez and Javier Hernandez in posing for the cameras before the session.

The Hammers are currently 12th in the Premier League, but have won just two of their past seven games in all competitions.

This includes a humiliating 4-2 defeat to AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup fourth round, although they did beat Arsenal in the league as their inconsistent season continues.

Pellegrini declared himself satisfied with West Ham's transfer activity - or lack of it - in the January window.

After bringing in Samir Nasri on a free transfer on New Year's Eve, the Hammers did not make a single addition to their first-team squad.

That was despite strong interest in, among others, Besiktas midfielder Gary Medel, Celta Vigo striker Maxi Gomez and Chelsea's Michy Batshuayi.

However, Marko Arnautovic's decision to stay - and potential moves away for Hernandez and Perez failing to materialise - means Pellegrini has to stick with what he has got for the remainder of the season.

Batshuayi's apparent decision to choose Crystal Palace over West Ham raised eyebrows on deadline day, but Pellegrini insisted he was only ever interested in signing a striker if one was transferred out.

'I am not frustrated,' he said. 'We didn't have any interest in bringing a new player here unless we sold one.

'We have a squad, we have some players with long injuries but we have other players.

'The only interest we had in changing players was if we sold one but if not, we have the squad and it must be ready to play the last 14 games of the season.

'The only player we had interest in was Gary Medel, they told us it was free and we were interested because he can play in two or three positions. But then it turned out the player was not free.

'So I think that we have the squad and we will work with it until the end of the season. Then we will see in the summer what we need to do. The January window does not offer many solutions.'

Defender Pablo Zabaleta admitted after the Wolves game that the Arnautovic saga, when interest in him from the Chinese Super League emerged, had been an unwelcome distraction.

'I agree with Pablo,' said Pellegrini. 'But not only with Marko, there are always a lot of clubs that call players offering a lot of money but they don't want to pay for them.

'The players then think they must go and of course their performances are not the same.

'Now the transfer window has closed I think that all of them, not just Marko, will be involved in our target.'