West Ham boss David Moyes has stressed the club will not rush Andriy Yarmolenko after giving the Ukraine international time off following the invasion of his country by Russia.

The 32-year-old winger was not part of the Hammers’ squad for Sunday’s 1-0 Premier League win over Wolves, having been given compassionate leave.

West Ham return to action on Wednesday with an FA Cup fifth-round tie at Southampton, and Moyes said of Yarmolenko at his pre-match press conference: “He came back in and did a bit of light training (on Monday), I had a good chat with him.

“Obviously he’s really upset with the whole situation, which many people are.

“We won’t rush him. I’ve asked him to come in today and see how he feels. If he feels fine and up to it then he’ll travel with the team. If he doesn’t, then we’ll give him some more days off.

“Things can change very quickly but we’ll give him the chance to go with his own feelings.

“He’s really upset – he’s got lots of family members in Ukraine and friends and he’s worried for everybody and realises the difficulty that’s going on, and he’s a long way away and can’t do an awful lot about it.”

Prior to Sunday’s match there was a strong show of support for Yarmolenko and Ukraine, which included West Ham warming up in T-shirts displaying his name and Declan Rice leading the side out carrying Yarmolenko’s number seven shirt.

Moyes added: “It’s a really difficult situation for us as well, because we’d like to offer him more help and support if we can, but we don’t really know what we can do either, and I think it’s the same with the world, I think the world is trying to give Ukraine as much support as they can.

“All we can hope for is the sanctions somewhere along the line start to take its toll on Russia, because none of us want to go to war with any country.

“Us personally with Yarmolenko, we try to deal with him, we speak to him most days. I have to say the players at the club were great with him (on Monday), they tried to get him back in, integrate him and make sure he felt really welcome and that we were thinking about him and his family.

“But there’s very little we can do – we just have to try to support him as best we can.”

It was announced on Monday that Russia had been suspended from all FIFA and UEFA competitions, which included Spartak Moscow being removed from the Europa League.

Moyes, whose side face Sevilla in the Europa League’s last 16, said: “I totally agree (with the measures taken), and I actually think they could have probably even been done even quicker.

“But I think UEFA have worked really hard, they’ve got rid of games, they’ve moved the Champions League final (from St Petersburg to Paris).

“Football is such a powerful tool all around the world. I think it’s really important we take action and make sure they (Russia) are isolated completely. I’m not a politician, but that’s how I feel about the football side.”

Moyes was also on Tuesday asked about defender Kurt Zouma, who has played three times since becoming the subject of controversy last month over the mistreatment of his pet cat.

“We just want Kurt to play like he has done prior to the incident, which obviously we’re all very regretful for,” the Scot said.

“Overall, I think he’s got to focus himself. It’s a situation he’s put himself in, but he’s obviously been mentally tough enough to get himself through as well at the moment and played very well in the games.”