Slav surgery can wait as points chase continues

Slaven Bilic isn’t considering the surgery he faces on his hip as the team limp towards the safety line this season.

The manager is ready to face that issue in the summer declaring: “My hip is nothing worse than it was last year. I don’t have time [for surgery]. You need six weeks for the operation – but I am not a player!”

And he added: “We need points. As long as I can remember, it is about 40 points. But I don’t think that way. You cannot calculate how you will get them. Not even Chelsea can say that. It is the greatest thing about this league.”

“I’m not talking only about getting out or keeping the distance [from the bottom three]. I’m talking also about climbing the table.”

Only then will he be able to think about this season saying. “I don’t like to moan about the obstacles we had.”