Slaven Bilic has claimed that Diafra Sakho could be on the bench against Arsenal tomorrow night.

The manager is clearly becoming as impatient for the striker’s return as the fans after David Gold indicated the player would be back soon.

And he said: “”Diafra is back. When you talk to him, he is ready, he can’t wait. It was only because it was not like a hamtedstring injury, he was out for a long time, he had the operation on his back and he is looking really good,”

He added: “Of course he is lacking match practice, but he has to start somewhere and he may be on the bench tomorrow, even. I have not decided yet, because of the length of his absence, but he is very, very close to that.”

However, Bilic also ruled Aaron Cresswell out for the game after the left-back suffered a muscle injury during the defeat to Hull.

“Cresswell is out for this week and it should be only this week, so it should only be a couple of games. We are talking about him being out against Arsenal and Swansea, but he should be back in training next week and available for the Sunderland game.”