El Hadji Malick Diouf and Aaron Wan-Bissaka have both reached the AFCON knockout stages, meaning they will be away for a bit longer.

Both Senegal and DR Congo were placed in the same group, and they finished joint top with seven points. Diouf’s Senegal topped the group on goal difference.

They both got seven points, both beating Benin and Botswana. When both sides clashed it ended in a 1-1 draw.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka started the first two matches, but was an inside substitute against Botswana as they had already pretty much qualified.

However, it’s a completely different story for Diouf, one that has angered Hammers fans. The 21-year-old left-back sat on the bench for the opening two fixtures in favour of Galatasaray and former West Ham target Ismail Jakobs.

Diouf did play the third match against Benin which ended in a 3-0 win and he played very well, but it’s unlikely he’s going to start in the next round.

Senegal face Sudan in the Round of 16 on the 2nd January which really should be a routine win for them. Apart from the hosts Morocco, they are the favourites to win the competition.

Congo have a much tricker match, they face Algeria. However, they play on the 6th so he cannot be back for Wolves or Forest. So, the former United man will likely be back to face QPR on the 11th.

However, despite only picking up a point from two games against Fulham and Brighton since they’ve left. Walker-Peters has been his usual consistent self and against Brighton we saw a lot of improvement from Scarles.

So whilst it would be really nice to have them back as soon as possible and have the strongest possible squad going into a massively important run of games, we might be okay without them.

A lot of Hammers fans and Nuno I expect has been happy with KWP and Scarles, but an injury to one of them and all hell will break loose. So selfishly, let’s hope they come back to us soon