West Ham's centre-back woes from last season have continued into the new campaign, with the latest news confirming that Craig Dawson's thigh injury will rule him out for at least another couple of weeks.

Last season saw the 32-year-old defender hold together a defence that was missing Kurt Zouma, Issa Diop and Angelo Ogbonna at various points in the season through injury, as he made 34 appearances in the Premier League and earned a spot in the Europa League team of the season for his performances.

David Moyes looked to amend that problem this summer with the signings of Nayef Aguerd and Thilo Kehrer but the former picked up an injury in pre-season, while Issa Diop was sold to Fulham, which has once again left the Scottish manager short at the back.

Dawson has yet to feature this season because of an injury that he was seemingly carrying for a lot of last season and Claret and Hugh have now confirmed that he is likely to miss the next four fixtures as he continues to be absent from training.

Moyes should be worried

While the signings of Aguerd and Kehrer might have moved Dawson down the pecking order, he has proved himself to be an extremely reliable member of Moyes' squad during his time at the London Stadium and the manager will no doubt be worried about his continued absence from proceedings.

Noel Whelan was full of praise for the former Rochdale man last season, saying:

“Even though they’ve got Kurt Zouma as a record signing, I think Dawson is the main man at the back. That has been an incredible signing by David Moyes.

“You’ve got Dawson on the scoresheet, Bowen on the scoresheet. There are certain players in that side who they can not do without. Those two are massive for that football club.

“Dawson is like a captain at the back, he’s a leader and he brings out the best of any centre-half who plays next to him.”

Kehrer has endured a difficult start to life with the Hammers, averaging a shocking 6.01 rating from WhoScored for his performance, which is significantly lower than the 6.70 rating Dawson averaged last season.

The defender impressed in a number of metrics, making 0.9 tackles per game which was the highest of any natural centre-back at West Ham last term. He was only dribbled past 0.3 times per game too, the second-best rate in the squad. Those numbers illustrate just how important a part of the squad he has been and with a lack of points on the board early in the season, his influence would be vital.

Indeed, West Ham have managed just one win and one clean sheet in the Premier League this term, which suggests that defensive improvements are required if they are to challenge for Europe once again this season.

Therefore, the fact that Dawson is still struggling with injury is undoubtedly a big worry for Moyes, especially as he will want more squad depth as the Europa Conference League kicks off this week, and the Scottish manager will be hoping that he returns to full fitness as soon as possible.