Zola fears international injuries for West Ham

Carlton Cole, Rob Green and Matthew Upson could all see some action in Amsterdam tonight and the Hammers boss hopes they return to east London unscathed as he makes his final preparations for Saturday's visit to Wolverhampton Wanderers.

He said: "Yes, I am worried about injuries. I don't think it's the best time to be playing but unfortunately this is the international schedule and you can't avoid it.

"I understand it is important for the international teams as well. I've been with the [Italian] international team until some time ago so I know these fixtures are important.

"I can't do anything about it, but as far as I'm concerned it's not the best."

As well as the England trio the Irons have James Collins, Danny Gabbidon and Jack Collison playing for Wales in Montenegro, Jon Spector with the USA in Mexico City, while Herita Ilunga is in the DR Congo squad playing Sengal in France.

Having had several weeks of pre-season to try and get his squad up to fitness and gelling as a unit Zola now finds his final preparations disrupted, with the danger of losing key personnel before the Irons have even kicked a competitive ball.

He said: "It's not ideal because one week before the start of the season you'd like to prepare the game with the whole team. Certainly Wolves will probably have the game prepared better than us because they will have the whole team.

"But I'm not complaining. I know the rules, I know the stakes, and I'll get on with that and we'll try to make the best out of it."