West Ham's Mark Noble to return from suspension against Stoke but Andy Carroll still out through injury

Slaven Bilic has confirmed that West Ham captain Mark Noble will return for the Hammers' trip to Stoke on Saturday, but revealed striker Andy Carroll remains sidelined with injury.

Noble has missed West Ham's last two games through suspension after he picked up his 10th yellow card of the season in the 1-0 win at home to Swansea earlier this month.

In the midfielder's absence, West Ham drew 2-2 at Sunderland before playing out a goalless draw with Everton at the London Stadium last Saturday.

With the Hammers now sitting in 14th place in the Premier League standings - seven points off the drop zone - Bilic confirmed that Noble will be in his squad for the club's game with Stoke this weekend.

"We have a few knocks from our last game, but we will see today in training and tomorrow our situation," Bilic said on Thursday.

"We were off yesterday. One [piece of news] is definitely that Mark [Noble] is back in the squad after two games suspended."

However, the West Ham manager ruled Carroll out of the game after the striker failed to recover from a recurrence of a thigh problem which meant he missed the trip to Goodison Park last weekend.

"Unfortunately, Andy Carroll won’t be available for this game," Bilic added.

"I was expecting him to be back for this Stoke game, but he’s not, so he should be for the next game against Spurs. He should be OK."