Nayef Aguerd plays for West Ham against Manchester City today despite being caught up in a deadly earthquake to have struck his native Morocco.
The 6.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the Atlas Mountains near Marrakesh has killed almost 3,000 people and led to Morocco’s international with Liberia being called off.
Aguerd featured in his country’s win over Burkina Faso in Lens, France on Tuesday and David Moyes has provided an update on his player ahead of the weekend’s match.
“I had a chat with Nayef this morning and my understanding is they were in the city where the earthquake was,” he told reporters on Friday.
“They’re all shaken by the whole situation. He’s back in, he’s training, but it’s a terrible tragedy for everybody.”
West Ham are be free from injury for the visit of City, despite Vladimir Coufal picking up a knock in Czech Republic duty and Edson Alvarez experiencing a difficult journey home.
“Some of them have picked up little bits of knocks,” he added. “Edson Alvarez had a delayed flight and returned home at 3am yesterday. It’s part and parcel of international breaks. We’re hoping that we have everybody fit and available.”
Konstantinos Mavropanos is on the bench ahead of making his debut.
Starting West Ham XI: Areola; Coufal, Zouma, Aguerd, Emerson; Ward-Prowse, Alvarez, Soucek; Bowen, Antonio, Paqueta
Subs: Fabianksi, Cresswell, Fornals, Kudus, Mavropanos, Ings, Ogbonna, Benrahma, Kehrer
Time and date: 3pm, Saturday September 16, 2023
Venue: London Stadium
