Andre Ayew is "very close" to making a full return to first-team action at West Ham United after a two month injury lay off, according to manager Slaven Bilic.
The forward has missed the past eight weeks with the thigh strain that he picked up 34 minutes into his Hammers debut back in August, but made a late cameo appearance from the substitutes' bench against Chelsea - the side he had picked up the injury against on the opening day of the season - in Wednesday's 2-1 EFL Cup victory.
Ayew is expected to step up his recovery further when West Ham visit Goodison Park to take on Everton on Sunday, and Bilic told the club's official site that the 26-year-old would not need much longer before he was in contention to feature for West Ham from the start.
ðŸ'�ðŸ�¾âš’🇬ðŸ‡âš½ï¸� THANK YOU pic.twitter.com/nvAtCknek6
Bilic said: He is very close. It was crucial [for him to get some game-time], because he had a long break from the first game of the season, and it's great to have him back.
He's been training with the group for a couple of weeks now and came on and did really good against Chelsea. He looked fit and aggressive, so it's great to have him back.�
Ayew joined West Ham from Premier League rivals Swansea City for a fee worth around £20m in the summer transfer window, but became one of a number of first-team casualties at the London Stadium that left Bilic sweating over the number of fit and available players for the opening months of the campaign.
Ayew joined fellow strikers Andy Carroll and Diafra Sakho on the treatment table as the 2016/17 season kicked off, while other notable absentees have included Aaron Cresswell, Arthur Masuaku, Sam Byram and Dimitri Payet at various stages of this term thus far.
West Ham have recovered from a dreadful start to the season in recent weeks, and have picked up three successive victories in all competitions.
The Irons face a home clash with Stoke City after the trip to Merseyside ahead of the last international break of 2016.
Read more from Tom Power by following him on twitter!