STOP KICKING HIM

Moyes: Not been great for club, Hammers boss: We’ll support but Zouma’s sorry for cat attack... Kurt with mental health and he’s we’re giving him a second chance STILL available for today’s game

BY

DAVID MOYES knows the damage cat-kicking Kurt Zouma has done to West Ham’s reputation.

But he has vowed to stick by the French defender and support him with any mental health issues which may be highlighted as part of any rehabilitation process.

Moyes, who confirmed on Friday that Zouma was available for selection for today’s clash with Leicester, said: “The boy is so remorseful – he’s really disappointed with his actions.

“So we have a duty of care – even the mental health side of things – we’re trying to make sure we give him every opportunity, that we give him support as well.

“He knows he has made a mistake and his family know they have made a mistake about the whole situation.

“He’s so disappointed with himself and his actions.

“He keeps repeating to me, ‘I’m really, really sorry for what has happened’, for what it has brought on to the club and on to me as well.

“But what do you do? Do you keep punishing people or do you give them a chance to put things right?

“All of us in life need a second chance sometimes – and we’re going to give Kurt a second chance. There was a lot of talk over should we or shouldn’t we have played him?

“The big thing for me was how long do we leave him out of the team, when is the right time to bring him back, would it be two games, four games, six games?

“What would be the period to do it? So he played.

“It will not make any other game any easier, but I could think of other people in other walks of life who make mistakes and sometimes it seems apologies – and he has apologised – are not enough to clear things up.”

The episode has proved a massive detractor from all the good things Moyes and everyone else at the club have been doing on the field and off it, too.

He said:

“I’m not saying what other clubs have haven’t missed a game through lockdown, we’ve done everything to play.

“The team has made big strides and the football club itself has made huge strides in what it is trying to do.

“I’ve said before that I want this to be a new West Ham, I want this to be a West Ham with young supporters.

“I love to see all the kids with their strips on, that they have new heroes like Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek, Micky

Antonio. So it’s a big thing and we know the damage this has done. We feel as badly about it as anyone.

“But we’ll do all we can to repair it and do all we can to try to get a positive from what is a very negative situation.”