West Ham United launch Mohammed Kudus plea to Ghana FA, Chris Hughton decision revealed
West Ham have had a “plea” for Mohammed Kudus to be allowed to play against Brighton rejected by Ghana boss Chris Hughton, according to the X account West Ham Football.
The season ticket holder and Moore Than Just A Podcast host, who has over 47,000 X followers, reported on Sunday (31 December) that the Hammers had requested Kudus be allowed to feature against the Seagulls on January 2 before jetting off to play in the Africa Cup of Nations.
However, Hughton has rejected the request out of hand meaning the exciting forward will not be available for David Moyes.
Explaining the situation, West Ham Football wrote: “Ghana head coach Chris Houghton has firmly rejected West Ham’s plea for Mohammed Kudus to join the AFCON training camp a few days later to be available for the Brighton game on Tuesday night.
“The former Hammer & Spurs player and later Brighton manager doesn’t want to risk injury for his star player and is within his rights to turn down the Hammers request.
“FIFA regulations say players should be released on New Years Day from training to travel to training camps which start on the 2nd January for AFCON. Kudus will now NOT be available for selection!”
Huge shame
This really is, pardon the pun I’ve read too many Christmas cracker jokes this week, a hammer blow for West Ham and David Moyes but one that was not entirely unexpected in truth.
Kudus has been an excellent addition since joining from Ajax in the last transfer window and has five goals in his past seven Premier League appearances to emphasise his importance to the team right now.
His goals and attacking prowess are going to be a huge miss during the next month or so and West Ham will be relying on the likes of Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta to shoulder even more of the burden in his absence.
Still, the likelihood that Hughton would have agreed to this was always pretty slim. He, rightly, will want his squad together as quickly as possible so they can start preparing for the tournament. David Moyes will have to figure out a quick solution.
In other West Ham news, the Hammers are willing to let an international striker depart on loan in January.