David Moyes urges Kurt Zouma to 'focus on football' after horrific cat attack

West Ham United boss David Moyes says Kurt Zouma has recovered from the ‘bad illness’ that ruled him out of last Sunday’s game against Leicester City.

Zouma was originally named in the starting XI for the clash at the King Power Stadium but withdrawn from the side shortly before kick-off after feeling unwell.

The Frenchman was a surprise inclusion in West Ham’s previous match against Watford following the emergence of a shocking video in which the defender was filmed dropping, kicking and slapping one of his Bengal cats.

The 27-year-old was fined £250,000 by the Hammers but it was announced last week no further action would be taken.

West Ham welcome Newcastle United to the London Stadium on Saturday afternoon with Moyes hoping to have him available for selection.

‘He’s better, but it’s taken him a couple of days to get over it. He had a quite bad illness,” Moyes told reporters.

‘He’s trained the last couple of days so I’m hoping that he’ll be available.

Asked how Zouma was mentally, Moyes added: ‘I think he’s probably really disappointed about what he’s done and he’s thinking about it a lot, no doubt, but overall we have tried to get him to move on.

‘We want him to concentrate on his training. He played very well for us against Watford the other week there, so we’re hoping that we can keep him at those levels of performance – we’ll be pleased with that.

‘He’s really well-liked here amongst the supporters, the performances he’s put in throughout the season already, so hopefully he can focus on his football and we’ll give him as much support as we can until we get him right back to his best.’

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