Slaven Bilic says that forgotten striker Diafra Sakho is close to making a return to first team action.
The Senegal international has been missing in action since he was linked with a move to West Bromwich Albion ahead of the transfer window deadline at the end of August.Since then, West Ham have put out a number of stories claiming that Sakho is close to recovery. But now, a further three months down the line, Slaven Bilic has finally revealed that he expects the striker to be involved in his first team plans once again.
"As manager I don't want to talk about the players when they're injured. I want to concentrate on the players I can count on for the games," he said.
"That's why I haven't talked a lot about Diafra Sakho, but of course I'm delighted he's back. We've been missing him since the start of pre-season basically, it's been a very long period. Now he's back.
"First he was training individually as part of his rehabilitation, then individually on the pitch, then he did a week with the Under 23s to have that [physical] contact and be involved in team work.
"He started to train with us after the game against Stoke. He's fit and he's good but like Aaron Cresswell, may need a few games to hit top form. But he looks really good and some of the players hit it straight away, like Cresswell.
"We rate him so much. He gives you something different; he runs deep, he runs behind the defence which creates opportunities for himself and opens space for other players. It's a big boost for us."
Watch the video below to hear what Bilic also had to say about Dimitri Payet's future and Andy Carroll's imminent return.
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