West Ham United centre-back Nayef Aguerd is closing in on a return to the Hammers’ first-team after spending over three months out of action with an ankle injury.
West Ham spent £30million on signing Aguerd from Stade Rennais in the summer, with the Moroccan international making his debut in claret and blue during a friendly against Reading in July.
Three days later, Aguerd made his second start in friendly action against Scottish side Rangers at Ibrox, although his involvement was cut short after suffering an ankle injury that required surgery.
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Aguerd has not been in action since then, casting some doubt over his place in Morocco’s World Cup squad, although he is expected to be fit enough to go to the tournament in Qatar.
The 26-year-old has been gradually ramping up his recovery in recent weeks and is starting to get close to a return to the first-team squad and match action, having not played a competitive match since playing the duration of Morocco’s 2-1 win over South Africa on June 9.
There is hope that Aguerd could be back in time to be involved against FCSB next month in the Europa Conference League, with Thursday’s home clash against Silkeborg in the same competition set to come too soon.
Moyes is also looking at trying to get Aguerd some minutes with the club’s under-21s if possible, with meetings against Wolverhampton Wanderers (November 7) and Tottenham Hotspur (November 11) both being possibilities before the World Cup.
“That would be ideally how he’d do it and the boy wants to do that and we need him to get some feel for the game, we don’t want to shock him by throwing him in,” Moyes told football.london .
“I think playing in the Premier League between now and the World Cup maybe more difficult, if you are looking at it that way, we will see how it would be.
“If I can get him fit for any part of Silkeborg or any part of [FCSB] that would be great. It might just come a bit quick, the first one certainly, but I’m hoping that maybe these two games are a possibility.
“If I could fit in a [21s] game from somewhere or somewhere which can get him 45 minutes, I might look to do so.”
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