David Moyes has hit out at the Premier League scheduling which denied West Ham their Africa Cup Of Nations-bound stars for Tuesday night’s bore draw with Brighton.
Already hit by injuries to the likes of Kurt Zouma, Lucas Paqueta and Michail Antonio, the Hammers were also forced to do without Mohammed Kudus and Nayef Aguerd for the goalless encounter after the pair were called up to their respective national squads.
The latest AFCON tournament, which is being held in Ivory Coast, does not begin until January 13, but under Fifa rules the deadline for clubs to release their international players for pre-tournament training camps passed on Monday.
The vast majority of Premier League clubs were able to hold onto their African players for the most recent round of fixtures, with Egypt’s Mohamed Salah scoring twice in Liverpool’s win over Newcastle on Monday night.
By the time of the Brighton contest, however, Aguerd had already linked up with Morocco, and while Kudus is yet to join Ghana as West Ham continue to assess a minor hamstring strain, Moyes is frustrated that the forward would have been unavailable even if fit.
“It feels a bit strange that we're playing on January 2,” Moyes said. "Could we not have played on the first and allowed our African players to be allowed to play yesterday, because they can't play today?
"I feel that's something which isn't correct. I just think why couldn't we have our African players the same as everybody else.
"Brighton might have had players at the Asian Games - I know [Kaoru] Mitoma's injured I think - but they might have the same feeling.
"It's nothing to do with the performance, Brighton were without lots of good players and we were without lots of good players.
"But I don't see at this point why you would play a game and be disadvantaged by some of your players not being able to play. I'm not saying any more."
