West Ham United’s starting full-back pairing won’t be available until the 3rd of January at least as they travel to Morocco to play in the African Cup of Nations. 

El Hadji Malick Diouf and Senegal are one of the favourites to win the African Cup of Nations as it kicks off next Sunday, they share a group with Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s DR Congo. They are also expected to reach the knockout stages with Benin and Botswana.

The winner of the group will likely be Senegal, who would play their first knockout tie on the 3rd January, while second place, where Congo are likely to finish will play on the 6th, or if either of them finish 3rd and are one of the best third placed teams they will be playing on the 5th.

So at the very least, we are most likely definitely going to be without them until our FA Cup clash with QPR on the 10th January at the very least. We host Nottingham Forest on January 6th, that could mean it’s possible for Diouf or AWB to play that game if they finish first in their group and lose the first knockout game, but that would be unlikely.

I think it’s a lot more likely we get Wan-Bissaka back early than Diouf as Senegal are expected to go all the way. As the hosts and Africa’s top ranked nation, Morocco are the favourites to lift the trophy, but other than them, Senegal are the favourites.

IF Senegal or Congo make the final which is on the 18th, Diouf or AWB will miss seven matches, the last of those being the London Derby against Tottenham Hotspur and he would return at home to Sunderland on the 24th Jan.

IF they were to reach the semi-finals which are played on the 14th, it would probably be the same case, they might be able to make the squad vs Tottenham on the 17th, but it would say it’s unlikely.

The quarter finals, where many would expect AWB and Congo to reach are played on the 9th or 10th of January which would mean he would miss the QPR clash, but would be back for Tottenham away which would be a huge boost.

At the very least, both players will be missing four of five matches and they’re going to be a massive miss. We will be more than okay with replacing one of them with Kyle Walker=Peters more than capable of playing on both sides.

However, the trouble is he can only play on one side. He will likely play on the right as we have no real other options on that side. This means we will have to find a solution for the left side.

Playing Oliver Scarles and left-back would be the obvious solution, however, it’s unclear if he will be back from his injury in time to face Manchester City. So, this could mean a central defender may have to play wider. There are three contenders for that role – Max Kilman, Igor Julio or youngster Ezra Mayers.

The 18-year-old made his first-team debut against Brighton as he came on at wing-back, replacing Diouf. This might suggest Nuno is preparing Mayers to take Diouf’s LB/LWB while he’s away. It will be interesting to see if he comes on again against Aston Villa this weekend, obviously depending how the game goes.

But whoever comes in for these players is going to be a bit of a downgrade, yes Diouf has been poor in recent weeks, if we were only missing him it would be okay, But the fact were missing both our starting full backs and only have one first-team player to cover it is worrying.

Lets hope Nuno has a good plan up his sleeve to cope.