David Moyes has expressed frustration at being unable to include Mohammed Kudus in West Ham’s goalless draw against Brighton.
The Ghana forward, a standout player for West Ham this season, was unavailable due to his upcoming participation in the Africa Cup of Nations.
In contrast, Egypt’s Mohamed Salah managed to play for Liverpool against Newcastle 24 hours earlier, scoring twice in a 4-2 victory before the deadline for players to join their national teams.
Moyes subtly criticised the Premier League’s schedulers and the choice to postpone the match for television a day later.
“It feels a bit strange that we’re playing on the second of January. Could we not have played on the first and allowed our African players to be allowed to play yesterday, because they can’t play today?
“I feel that’s something which isn’t correct. I just think why couldn’t we have our African players the same as everybody else?”
The move to reschedule the match for television seemed even more puzzling as two fatigued teams played out a lackluster goalless draw. Considering it was West Ham’s ninth game in a month and Brighton’s eighth, the managers might have agreed on a draw before kick-off and opted to watch the darts instead.