West Ham face dilemma on Ghana's Andre Ayew injury

Ghana international and West Ham’s recent record £20.5m signing Andre Ayew is facing a four-month layoff depending on whether he has surgery, says West Ham boss Slaven Bilic.

Andre Ayew picked up a thigh injury on his debut and was taken off after only 35 minutes in the 2-1 defeat by Chelsea on Monday night.

Club chairman David Gold had confirmed the forward will face four months on the sidelines with the thigh problem, but Bilic now says the recovery time could be cut significantly depending on whether they opt for surgery or not.

Sad news. Ayew has injured his quadriceps and will need surgery. He will be out for 4 months. Good luck Andre. dg pic.twitter.com/zL4Rph25TY

— David Gold (@davidgold) August 18, 2016

SLAVEN: For Andre Ayew, there are two solutions, one with surgery and one without. We are going to decide which one soon.

— West Ham United (WestHamUtd) August 19, 2016

SLAVEN: He could be out for two and a half months or up to four. It shouldn't be more. He could be back this year, and we just have to hope.

— West Ham United (WestHamUtd) August 19, 2016

SLAVEN: For Andre Ayew, there are two solutions, one with surgery and one without. We are going to decide which one soon.

— West Ham United (@WestHamUtd) August 19, 2016

West Ham drew 1-1 with Romanian side Astra Giurgiu in their Europa League qualifying play-off first-leg tie on Thursday night, and immediately returned home to London in order to prepare for Sunday’s visit of Bournemouth – the first Premier League game to be held at the Hammers’ new London Stadium.

SLAVEN: Our Stadium is not intimidating until we make it with the quality of our game. We felt the atmosphere was great there in the 2 games

— West Ham United (@WestHamUtd) August 19, 2016