David Moyes is hopeful West Ham United get Kurt Zouma back soon after constant changes to the backline during the first-half of the Premier League season.
The Hammers began the 2022/23 campaign with one fit centre back due to injuries to Craig Dawson, Angelo Ogbonna and summer signing Nayef Aguerd.
Since then, Dawson and Ogbonna have returned and Moyes was forced to dip back into the transfer market in August to sign Thilo Kehrer due to his ability to play across the backline.
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However, with Aguerd back to fitness despite returning from the 2022 Qatar World Cup with an injury and virus which forced him out of Morocco's final three games in the Middle East, Zouma is currently out of action after undergoing knee surgery in November.
The French defender will miss tonight's (Wednesday) fixture against Leeds United, with Moyes explaining the problems he has had trying to field a stable partnership at the back before adding that Aguerd is an option but doesn't have much Premier League experience - he was an unused substitute in the 2-0 defeat to Brentford.
"We’ve had Kurt for a long part of the first half of the season so we’ve got to watch that it’s not with every player you don’t select…" said Moyes. "It’s a bit like if I select a team and whoever isn’t playing, somebody will say you should’ve played him.
"Kurt was part of the first half of the season where we didn’t perform particularly well. But do we want him back? 100 per cent. We’ve not had Aguerd all season. There would’ve been times this season where I was trying to get Kurt and Aguerd together and we’ve not been able to.
"We’ve had to play Thilo in different positions and, to be fair, that’s what we brought him for, for his versatility. We had Angelo just coming back, we had an injury to Dawson for the first six or eight weeks of the season.
"Hopefully, Kurt’s not too far away and Nayef’s just about there hopefully. But he’s someone who’s not got much Premier League experience at this point in time."
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