West Ham have welcomed Mohammed Kudus back to their team for the Premier League meeting with Bournemouth tonight.

The former Ajax winger has not played for his club since the victory over Arsenal in late December but has returned sooner than expected from Ivory Coast after Ghana were knocked out in the group stage of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Midfielder Edson Alvarez missed the dramatic 2-2 draw at Sheffield United earlier this month with a calf problem but West Ham boss David Moyes starts both players having confirmed they will be back in contention when the Cherries come to east London this evening.

“Mo’s back from the AFCON which is good,” the Scot said. “Edson Alvarez is doing much better so hopefully he’ll be available.”

Kalvin Phillips does make his Hammers debut after joining on loan from Manchester City earlier this month.

“I don’t know exactly if he is [ready to start] or not because he’s not played an awful lot at all but he’s been training and keeping himself going,” Moyes had said of Phillips. “I couldn’t give you the exact answer if he’s ready to play or not.”

Said Benrahma and Vladimir Coufal are both suspended for the game, though the former is unlikely to have featured anyway as he weighs up a deadline day move to Lyon.

Nayef Aguerd’s Morocco side were knocked out of AFCON on Tuesday night, but this game has come too soon for the centre-back to be involved.

West Ham XI: Areola; Johnson, Mavropanos, Zouma, Emerson; Phillips, Ward-Prowse, Alvarez, Soucek; Bowen, Kudus

Subs: Fabianski, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Ings, Cornet, Orford, Mubama, Casey, Scarles

Injuries: Paqueta, Antonio

Suspended: Coufal, Benrahma

Unavailable: Aguerd

Time and date: 7:30pm GMT on Thursday February 1, 2024

Venue: London Stadium

TV channel: TNT Sports