West Ham look set to be without a key player when they take on Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon.

It's set to be a huge clash in the race for Europe with West Ham sitting in seventh in the Premier League while Newcastle are chasing this weekend's opponents down.

Despite the fans being unhappy with David Moyes' style of football, the Hammers do have some brilliant individual stars who will again be key to this huge game on Saturday.

Newcastle had wanted to sign injured star West Ham attacker Mohammed Kudus joined the club for PS38m back in the summer from Ajax and has been a hugely successful addition to the squad scoring six and assisting four in 24 league games.

Newcastle had previously shown interest in the 23-year-old when he was playing for the Dutch giants but it's not believed that they had actually made a solid offer last year.

Now, it is looking like Newcastle have missed out on the Ghanaian star who is now being tracked by some top clubs in Europe should West Ham be forced to sell him soon.

Having picked up a bit of a shoulder injury against Aston Villa before the international break, Kudus has missed Ghana's most recent squad where they played Nigeria on Friday in a 2-1 defeat.

Kudus is now a doubt to travel to St James' Park to face Newcastle who are absolutely desperate for a big three points to keep their season alive.

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The race for Champions League is now over, though there is still a chance Newcastle could be in the Europa League or Conference League, especially with a win against seventh-placed West Ham.

Having already played their toughest fixtures in the last couple of months, Newcastle have a much kinder fixture list than some of their direct rivals, and they must take full advantage of it.

It's a big ask but with his job on the line Howe will be doing everything he can to get his players up for this Saturday where they can kick this final run-in off with a victory.