West Ham United: ExWHUemployee reveals Nayef Aguerd may be asked to return early for Arsenal clash

Insider ExWHUemployee has revealed that West Ham United may ask Nayef Aguerd to return early ahead of their next Premier League game despite recent injury concerns. 

Since mid-November, the Hammers have been without competitive football while the winter World Cup took place in Qatar. During this time, their centre-back has impressed with Morocco.

Indeed, Aguerd made it all the way to the semi-finals, playing in the first four games of the competition before injury forced him to sit out the rest of the tournament.

Now the World Cup is over, the defender should be afforded some time off to relax and recover, but it seems as though West Ham may ask him to come back to first-team contention a little sooner than expected.

When talking on The West Ham Way podcast, Ex said: “Aguerd was on the bench for Morocco’s third-place play-off against Croatia. So he’s meant to be deemed match-fit, but he’s obviously not returned to the club yet.

“He’s not due to return, I think, until the 23rd of December. So the club will ask him, because they gave other players 10 days’ holiday – like [Declan] Rice and [Lucas] Paqueta – but with Aguerd, I think they’re going to ask him to play against Arsenal because of the necessity and the need.”

TIF Thoughts on Nayef Aguerd and West Ham…

The Hammers travel to Arsenal on 26th December and will probably have to do so without centre-back Kurt Zouma, who had to have knee surgery during the winter break.

With that in mind, it makes sense if David Moyes was keen on rushing Aguerd back to action for the upcoming Premier League match. However, seeing as he has been struggling with fitness issues for his country, they won’t want to put him at risk of making anything worse.

After all, the Moroccan picked up an ankle injury before even playing a competitive game for the Hammers and has only played once in the league up to this point in his career.

Therefore, it remains to be seen just how desperate Moyes will be to have his defender back for their trip to north London and whether Aguerd will be on top form should he bow to the manager’s request.