South African striker Lyle Foster is still receiving treatment for mental health issues and is not yet ready to return to Premier League action for Burnley on the weekend.

The striker, who has bravely made his troubles public, will miss out on Burnley’s weekend encounter with West Ham.

It has been a tough start to their Premier League campaign for Burnley, who are anchored firmly to the foot of the table with just a solitary win from their twelve games.

Despite their problems in the league manager Vincent Kompany said he would do nothing to rush Foster, who is their leading scorer, back to action.

Addressing the media, he said: “There is very little I can communicate about Lyle, other than that we’re convinced he’s getting the best care possible.

“We are fully ready as and when, we can’t put a timeframe on it, to embrace him again with us and make sure he has platform to play his best again.

“At the moment the focus is just on him getting better,” said Kompany.

He went on to say that despite their lowly position in the league he remained convinced their fortunes would change.

“I hope that being desperate to win is something you always have.

“I don’t feel like you can ever go into a game not being fully committed to winning games. I’d like to think that that’s something that does live in this club.

“The league has been tough for us, it doesn’t matter whether we have played well or had games against teams that were stronger than us, it’s always been a case of adapting to this level still.

“I am firm believer in consistent improvement, consistency in habits and standards.

“The efforts and sacrifices of everybody in this club is helping us to achieve that, it’s got to close that gap. Getting there in time is key but I see no signs of dropping our ambition or desire to do so.

“Exciting time for us to try and belong in this league.

“That is in my nature, when nobody believes anymore, I will still be the last man believing until the end and I will be the first one as well.

“It lives within the team, it lives within the squad, I don’t think we have to ever doubt that we can put a run of results together. It has been details at the moment that have cost us, individual details sometimes as well.

“I see solutions though and that is my job as a manager, I offer those solutions to the team and help them and more or less focus on that desire to take on the challenge.”

Burnley versus West Ham at Turf Moor kicks off on Saturday afternoon at 5pm South African time.