Bilic: Kouyate is also out for the season due to his wrist

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic stated Friday that Cheikhou Kouyate has joined Mark Noble on the club’s “out for the season” lengthy injury list.

In his weekly press conference ahead of their home finale vs Liverpool Sunday, the Hammers boss opined about the hernia surgery that his side’s captain requires, and how his occasional holding midfield partner Kouyate has joined him on the sidelines with the Senegal star’s nagging wrist finally needing an examination.

“The hernia thing he has in the last couple of months, he didn’t want to talk about it because he is a great captain and he wanted to help the club and the team,” Bilic said. “And it affected him of course. Now it became a bit worse. It’s not because we are safe now and he doesn’t want to play. I really wanted him to play one more game against Liverpool, he really wanted it. But the surgeon should be done as soon as possible. So there is no way he will play another game for us.”

“That wrist problem has been since Africa Cup, and it became worse,” Bilic said on Kouyate. “He played through a lot of pain. He was suppose to do the operation earlier. But because we really needed him, we made a plan for him to play as much as possible. But it became worse, so he was not able to play.”

Bilic also discussed how Andy Carroll would be ruled out against the third place Reds, as groin issues continue to persist for the West Ham star forward.

“He pulled groin, it’s hard to say, it’s in that area,” Bilic said. “Unfortunately he can’t play. He tried to do yesterday and the day before yesterday. But it’s not good, again. It’s nothing major, but it’s very frustrating not to have Andy in these couple of games or before, because we know what he means to us.”

Despite Carroll’s constant inactivity, the Croatian tactician stated that he still firmly supports both the English international and Diafra Sakho through their almost terminal fitness problems.

“Andy is the kind of a player that he has such a big impact on our game, that I will never give up on Andy,” Bilic said. “Especially now I don’t know what it was before, but it has nothing to do with lifestyle or being committed enough. He is working really hard. It’s just bad luck. As I said, I will never give up on him.”

“With Sakho is the same, they all have a contract with us. With Diafra, he has had a couple of injuries, long term ones. It’s worse for the manager and for the team to have so many players out.”

“But the good thing is, we have had many injuries this season. We still have a really good team. We will really put a good team out.”

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