West Ham United manager David Moyes has admitted it may be tough for Nayef Aguerd to get a Premier League game before the World Cup.
The centre-back joined West Ham this summer from French side Rennes but has been injured since July and is yet to register any game time in the Premier League this season.
Aguerd suffered an ankle injury which forced the 26-year-old to undergo surgery and that injury is said to keep him out of West Ham’s Premier League action until after the World Cup in Qatar, which ends in December.
The defender’s main concern will be the World Cup as he is in a race against time to build his fitness up ahead of the tournament in Qatar but West Ham boss David Moyes has a plan for that.
Moyes has now opened up on West Ham’s plans for Aguerd to make his return from injury with football.london and has stated that he will build up the defender’s fitness through the Europa Conference League.
The Hammers manager said: “That would be ideally how he’d do it, and the boy wants to do that, and we need him to get some feel for the game.
“We don’t want to shock him by throwing him in [the Premier League].
“I think playing in the Premier League between now and the World Cup [is] maybe more difficult. If you are looking at it that way, we will see how it would be. If I can get him fit for any part of Silkeborg or any part of [FCSB] that would be great.
“It might just come a bit quick, the first one certainly. But I’m hoping that maybe these two games are a possibility. If I could fit in a [U21] game from somewhere or somewhere which can get him 45 minutes, I might look to do so.”