West Ham United vs Tottenham: Diafra Sakho and Alex Song return but Enner Valencia joins Dimitri Payet on injury list

West Ham United will welcome back three key players for the Premier League visit of London rivals Tottenham Hotspur but are without Enner Valencia after the Ecuador forward suffered a fresh injury blow which will rule him out for a month. The 26-year-old had featured once since picking up a long-term knee injury in the Europa League qualifier against Astra before lasting just 19 minutes of a substitute appearance in the 1-1 draw with Everton.

Valencia is expected to be out for four weeks with a foot injury and joins Frenchman Dimitri Payet on the sidelines after he picked up an ankle injury following a tackle by Everton midfielder James McCarthy. The 28-year-old has scored five Premier League goals this season and made three assists but Bilic says his side can cope without him.

"On one hand, West Ham is not only Dimitri Payet but he is our best player and is the most important, especially when we have the ball," he said ahead of the visit of Tottenham, according to the club's Twitter page. "We are going to miss him, definitely, and it's a big loss for us. It was a very bad tackle from the Everton player.

"We are going to miss him, but we are not going to play with ten players. We are going to see how we're going to look without him. "We are not only Payet. We have a lot of quality players and those who play will have to step up and do more for us."

Despite being without two vital players, West Ham's injury list has been eased for the game against Tottenham after Bliic confirmed that three players will be back in contention following spells on the sidelines. Diafra Sakho, Pedro Obiang and Alex Song have all been suffering from hip, thigh and ankle problems respectively. However, they are all available again after capitalising on the international break to regain full fitness.

The former Croatia coach is also pleased Song is back in his squad: "He played one friendly game and did well for 60 minutes, but he needs more time and games to get back to top form. Sakho is back. Kouyate is back from international duty with Senegal today. He is not injured, which is the most important thing.

"Obiang is back in training today (Friday) and we will decide. On Sunday (against Tottenham) we need only the players who are 100% fit. We had another blow with Enner Valencia. We were without him since Astra and he came on against Everton and was really good.

"To be without him again is a massive blow. His injury looks like four weeks, which is not that long, but long enough."