Silva frustrated to have so many Hull City absentees

Third-from-bottom Hull City are right in the middle of a Premier League relegation scrap, and manager Marco Silva admits the international break could not have come at a worse time.

The Tigers face both stuttering West Ham and Middlesbrough – the side immediately below them in the table – in their next two matches, and Silva knows if they are to have any hope of survival, wins in those games are vital.

But with ten players away on international duty this week, the 39-year-old Portuguese boss admits his preparations for those crunch clashes will be hampered.

“We have ten players away and, of course, this is not the best situation for us because we would rather be playing again this weekend,” added Silva.

“Some players may only be available to train on the Friday before we play West Ham, but this is the situation. We know what the schedule is and we will work with this.

“We have some big games coming up at home and we need to be ready for these. We believe we can get out of the bottom three and we are doing all we can to keep that goal open. The players also believe and that is important.

“We had a result last weekend that we didn’t deserve – so many details made the difference in that game, but we won’t be using excuses because I prefer to look at my own work.

“I want to improve my team and look at what we need to do to be able to do that. We stay, we fight and we look to take points.

“We lost our last game and that isn’t good for us, but we now need to do our own work ready for the next games.”