David Moyes has confirmed that Kurt Zouma could return to his starting 11 for Newcastle United’s trip to the London Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Frenchman – who has been fined £250,000 and dropped by Adidas after kicking a cat – started in their last home game against Watford (which they won 1-0), but dropped out of their side to face Leicester last weekend after feeling ‘unwell’ during the warm up.
However, Moyes – who has been heavily criticised for his stance on this controversial matter – says the 27-year-old is now feeling better and back in contention to start after returning to training this week.
Here’s what he had to say when asked if the former Chelsea defender will return tomorrow:
“He is better, it took him a couple of days to get over but he has trained so I am hoping he is available.
“We want him to concentrate on his training. We’re hoping that we can keep him at those levels of performances.
“Hopefully he can focus on his football and we’ll give him as much support as we can before we get him ready back to his best.”
The Irons boss then discussed Eddie Howe, revealing that he’s well respected ‘among the manager’s circle’:
“I think first and foremost it’s been a really difficult job to stabilise a club the size of Newcastle, with all the changes going on.
“Eddie’s a really good steady hand and has shown he can build a football club.
“He’s got a really good reputation among the manager’s circle. He’s at a really big club in Newcastle, with big expectations. Results recently have been good. They’ve brought in some new signings who have helped them as well.
“Newcastle at any time are a really tough task and we’ll need to be at our best to get a result.”
Moyes also revealed that they have ‘one or two’ injury problems heading into the game, but refused to reveal who could miss out for the Hammers:
“We have one or two doubts and question marks over some players but I will not give that away.”
Personally, I hope Zouma doesn’t play.
Off-field matters aside, West Ham are much poorer defensively when Diop and Dawson start at centre-back!
