West Ham Slaven Bilic was asked by Rob Pritchard from West Ham in-house TV about the condition of Dimi Payet after he was substituted after 78 minutes during yesterday’s 3-1 victory at Dean Court. Slav explained Dimi had complained of cramps and tightening of his muscles after the equaliser he scored.
“Dimi is different, he told me he had cramps before the second goal, it was 1-1 and we really didn’t want to risk him and already we prepared Alex (Song) and then he (setup) a goal but he would come off anyway because no matter how the game was important we didn’t want to lose him for a long term.”
Bilic also spoke about Payet is his post match conference:
“He had a long term injury with his ankle and we waited, the physios did a good job, he did a good job, he came back in great shape and slowly we were putting him (back) and now he is fit, OK he is still not fit to play 90 minutes but he basically one of those players that is making all the other players better and he is a player that in the last third of the pitch is making a difference with assists, with his goals, with his passing and everything”
Even if he is only available for half the game it will make all the difference and he did come back early,
With Lanzini and Sakho out for so long it’s just amazing how this great squad has gone so many games without loosing,