The African Cup of Nations didn’t hit the West Ham squad as hard as anticipated, mainly because Diafra Sakho was injured and will miss an extended period of time, but Sofiane Feghouli’s shock exclusion meant the Hammers were without just Cheikhou Kouyate and Andre Ayew.
West Ham were fortunate enough to welcome Kouyate back last week and boy did they need him. The Senegalese midfielder put in a brilliant performance at right-back when the Hammers lost Sam Byram to a hamstring injury before the match.
Andre Ayew has been out in Gabon for the duration of the competition as Ghana made it all the way to the semi-finals where they lost 2-0 to eventual winners Cameroon.
The winger played the full 90 minutes in all five games en route to the semi-final, scoring twice, and was given a brief cameo sub appearance in the third place playoff defeat to Burkina Faso.
Ghanasoccernet report that Ayew will rejoin his West Ham teammates today ahead of Saturday’s visit of West Brom at the London Stadium.
While Slaven Bilic’s plans on how to use Ayew in the next few games remains under wraps, do not be shocked to see him give the attacker a short rest from first-team action given he has only just returned from the tournament.
West Ham are playing well and have a number of options in the wide attacking areas and could feasibly live without Ayew for another week or two just like they have done for all of January.
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