Slaven Bilic has spoken to the press ahead of the Crystal Palace game, outlining the latest injury news and Sam Allardyce’s comments.
Andy Carroll is expected to be back for the away trip to Palace whilst the likes of Ogbonna and Valencia are back in training:
“Enner played 20 minutes in the friendly against Reading and looked really good, he’s been out for a while so he still needs a few weeks. But when I see him in training he does things that make you think ’maybe he could 10 minutes on Saturday’, but I think it’ll be two weeks until he’s fully ready.”
Bilic also gave an update on Alex Song, he expects the midfielder to be available for selection within two to three weeks which is clearly great news for the club.
Sam Allardyce criticised Andy Carroll’s work rate for the club in what has been a week of controversial comments from the former Hammers manager. Bilic, on the other hand, disagrees with Big Sam:
“I heard what he said, when I arrived Andy was injured but he’s been working unbelievably hard to get fit. He’s a great professional, it’s hard when you’re working on your own every day but he did it. Since I’ve been here, in training and during his rehabilitation, he’s been top class.”
Dimitri Payet also made the news this week due to another omission from the French national squad. Bilic has heaped the praise on his star signing so far and today was no different:
“It’s hard when you don’t know the full situation. I know as a national manager, that it can be hard to select everyone. France have a wide pool to choose from, a lot of quality players. If you ask me do they have many players like Dimitri, then maybe not. There aren’t many players like him and I think he could fit into any national side in the world.
“Not only his quality on the pitch but off it too. He’s a quiet guy and quite shy but everyone likes working with him and he’s a great guy.”
