Daniel Feliciano

Sun 13 February 2022 18:55, UK

Gary Lineker shared his instant reaction on Twitter to news that Kurt Zouma has been withdrawn from the West Ham starting lineup ahead of their 2-2 draw at Leicester on Sunday.

The French defender was initially named in the starting lineup for the Hammers, partnering Craig Dawson in defence, despite calls for him to be dropped following off-field issues.

But during the warm-up Zouma had issues with his vision and felt ill [BBC Sport] and was pulled from the team, replaced by Issa Diop.

Lineker reacted to the news on his personal Twitter account, making a trademark comedic quip about Zouma’s cat scandal for his 8.3m followers to laugh at.

“Seems Zouma felt unwell in the warm-up and is now out of the starting line up. That’s put the cat amongst the pigeons,” he wrote.

Blow

While the tweet was funny and many were happy that Zouma wasn’t going to feature, West Ham were dealt a big blow by the news.

The 27-year-old is without doubt the best defender at the club and his form has been good since joining from Chelsea in the summer on a four-year deal.

His aerial ability, pace, physical strength and reading of the game are huge bonuses to the team and the fact he was taken out of the team on such short notice is bound to cause problems.

Issa Diop’s form has been quite poor this year whenever he has had to step in and so it’s no surprise to see that he has been linked with a move away in the summer.

But while he’s at the club, Moyes needs him to find his level again and fill in for as long as necessary as one of only three senior centre-backs at the club right now.

In other West Ham news, Report shares major update on contract status of West Ham player whose deal expires in summer