ExWHUemployee shares West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice update as he attends friendly v Fulham
West Ham midfielder Declan Rice was reportedly spotted in the stands for the friendly against Fulham on 17 December ahead of the Premier League return.
According to ExWHUemployee, the England midfielder along with Lucas Paqueta and Thilo Kehrer will return to the squad on Monday, 19 December.
This certainly does put them in contention to play in the first official game after the break when West Ham take on Arsenal on Boxing Day.
Ex wrote, “Declan Rice appears to be in attendance for the game today and he, Paqueta and Kehrer are expected back in training with the squad on Monday.”
Good news
If West Ham are to have any chance of beating Arsenal, they need Rice back to anchor the midfield and keep the Gunners at bay.
Gabriel Jesus’ absence is certainly going to be beneficial but the Hammers need to treat this as a winnable game as a lot of players from Arsenal were at the World Cup.
Paqueta’s return will also be a welcome boost for David Moyes and it remains to be seen where the Brazil midfielder is deployed on the 26th.
We’re hoping that Tomas Soucek is benched and Moyes stops showing his biases towards him as he’s clearly not been good enough.
It’s also understood that the club are already preparing for life without Soucek and January could be the time they actually cash in on him.
We’re hoping that Rice carries on from where he left off and continues to put in world class performances for the Hammers week in and week out.