Aaron Cresswell making "very good progress" on return from injury

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 11 August 2016

West Ham United's Aaron Cresswell has started walking without the aid of crutches and is ready to step up his rehabilitation process in the coming days.

West Ham United have revealed that injured full-back Aaron Cresswell is making "very good progress" and is due to step up his rehabilitation process next week.

The 26-year-old picked up an untimely injury in the Hammers' 3-0 pre-season win over Karlsruher SC at the end of July, which will likely keep him out of action for the remainder of the year.

West Ham have since moved to bring in a replacement for the troublesome position, signing Arthur Masuaku from Olympiacos on a four-year contract earlier this week, but Cresswell is already well on the road to recovery.

Head of Medical and Sports Science Stijn Vandenbroucke told the club's official website: "Aaron injured his knee in the pre-season match with Karlsruher in Austria. He did not require an operation and is making very good progress.

"Aaron has been wearing a brace and using crutches for a few weeks. He has now started walking with the brace, partially weight bearing. On Sunday we will take the brace off and progress to the next steps in his rehabilitation process."

West Ham have other injury concerns ahead of their Premier League opener against Chelsea on Monday night, but Vandenbroucke added: "This week we have encouraging news regarding Manuel Lanzini, Cresswell and Gokhan Tore.

"Manuel injured his knee while on Olympic Games duty with Argentina. He was wearing a knee brace for four weeks. Manuel is out of the brace and has entered a new phase in his rehab and started running on Wednesday.

"Gokhan got injured in the final training session in Slovenia before our UEFA Europa League first leg with Domzale. He had a significant trauma to his knee and rehabbed very well with our medical team and rehab fitness coach Eamon Swift, finishing those sessions on Wednesday. He will resume training with the squad today."

Meanwhile, Diafra Sakho is undergoing an individual training programme to reach peak fitness, while Cheikhou Kouyate, Pedro Obiang and Darren Randolph are all fit for selection after recently picking up minor knocks.