A picture on social media appears to disprove rumours circulating about West Ham star Divin Mubama ahead of this week’s Europa League clash.
West Ham have today flown to Serbia ahead of Thursday night’s Europa League clash against Backa Topola.
A positive result will guarantee Europa League knockout football post Christmas.
A win would put West Ham in the box seat to top Group A.
Because even if Freiburg get a win over Olympiacos, the Germans would then have to beat the Hammers by two clear goals at the London Stadium in the final group game to better their head-to-head record.
The expectation is that West Ham will beat Backa Topola comfortably. But they proved tricky opponents in the reverse fixture in east London so should not be taken too lightly on their own patch – about an hour from Belgrade.
With a winnable game against Crystal Palace on the horizon at home on Sunday, David Moyes is likely to rotate his squad as he so often does in Europe.
Especially given the Hammers have started to pick up injuries to key players of late including Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio. A hectic schedule has also been taking its toll on Mohammed Kudus’ back.
West Ham dropped a hint that Pablo Fornals and Angelo Ogbonna could be involved as well as Lucas Paqueta and Tomas Soucek this morning.
With Bowen and Antonio out, West Ham fans are hoping young striker Divin Mubama gets a start given the poor performances of Danny Ings.
That is certainly the expectation among many Hammers supporters following Mubama’s impact in helping West Ham come from behind to beat Burnley last time out.
But the West Ham channel Claret and Booze claimed on Wednesday that Mubama – who is the subject of protracted talks over a new contract – would not be travelling to Serbia for the game.
Now a picture on social media appears to disprove rumours circulating about West Ham star Mubama ahead of the Europa League clash.
A popular West Ham account has posted a picture of Mubama on X purportedly showing him about to board the flight to Serbia captioned: “Divin on his way to Serbia.”
That will come as a huge relief to West Ham fans who would have feared the worst regarding Mubama’s future had he been left behind.
Especially after it was claimed West Ham are now ‘confident’ of getting Mubama signed up to a new deal.
West Ham have now also posted a picture gallery on the club’s official website showing Mubama training and indeed travelling to Serbia.
All eyes will now be on how Moyes plays things with his starting line-up. The Scot has voiced concerns over the workload undertaken by Nayef Aguerd and Edson Alvarez this week.
So they too could be rested in a line-up that looks something like this:
Fabianski, Kehrer, Mavropanos, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Soucek, Paqueta, Ward-Prowse, Fornals, Benrahma or Kudus, Mubama.
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