Michail Antonio will start against Stoke with West Ham rocked by injury crisis

Antonio has made three substitute appearances since signing from Nottingham Forest in September

MICHAIL ANTONIO will return from the West Ham wilderness against Stoke to make his first start for the club.

 

Hammers co-chairman David Gold was caught out by a prankster last month when he retweeted a photo of a 'missing Hammers fan', who was in fact the man Gold had shelled out £7million on from Nottingham Forest.

With five of Slaven Bilic's key attacking threats out injured and the Hammers searching for their first win in six games, Antonio will finally be handed a start after being restricted to just three appearances from the bench.

 

Bilic, however, has warned Antonio not to try too hard to impress.

"I'm expecting a lot but I don't want him to burnout now if he wants to show in 15 or 90 minutes what he didn't have a chance to do over two months," said Bilic.

"His chance comes now and the way he behaves and trains and played for Forest, I expect a lot from him."

 

Stoke manager Mark Hughes, however, believes Xherdan Shaqiri is taking his chance and proving the cynics wrong.

Shaqiri was widely accused of moving for the money when he quit Inter Milan for the Britannia Stadium in August. The Switzerland winger only became Stoke's £12million record signing a month after the deal looked to have fallen through because he was taking so long to make up his mind.

Former Germany midfielder Stefan Effenberg and ex-Liverpool defender Stephane Henchoz were among those to suggest that Shaqiri was only really interested in the cash.

But Hughes said: "I think Shaq has always said that it was a football decision. He wanted to come to the Premier League and he saw us as a really good option. He could have got more money elsewhere, I'm sure. But he wanted to come here. He could see the players that were already here and he wanted to be part of that."