David Moyes has made a very strange point about Kurt Zouma’s injury recovery.

While insisting that he wants the France international back as quickly as possible, so he can pair him with Nayef Aguerd in the backline, Moyes made the point that Zouma was fit when the Irons’ form started to slip.

The Hammers have lost five in a row and Zouma is continuing to recover, although he is unlikely to be fit to play against Leeds tonight.

Speaking to reporters, he said: “We’ve had Kurt for a long part of the first half of the season so we’ve got to watch that it’s not with every player you don’t select… It’s a bit like if I select a team and whoever isn’t playing, somebody will say you should’ve played him.

“Kurt was part of the first half of the season where we didn’t perform particularly well. But do we want him back? 100 per cent. We’ve not had Aguerd all season.

“There would’ve been times this season where I was trying to get Kurt and Aguerd together and we’ve not been able to. We’ve had to play Thilo in different positions and, to be fair, that’s what we brought him for, for his versatility.

“We had Angelo just coming back, we had an injury to Dawson for the first six or eight weeks of the season. Hopefully, Kurt’s not too far away and Nayef’s just about there hopefully. But he’s someone who’s not got much Premier League experience at this point in time.”