{"id":371090,"date":"2026-01-15T09:45:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/371090\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T09:45:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:45:19","slug":"how-malick-diouf-just-stopped-mohamed-salah-in-his-tracks-as-west-ham-star-moves-closer-to-afcon-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/371090\/","title":{"rendered":"How Malick Diouf just stopped Mohamed Salah in his tracks as West Ham star moves closer to AFCON glory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

West Ham United will be without El Hadji Malick Diouf for a while longer after the defender helped Senegal book their place in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations at the expense of Mohamed Salah. <\/p>\n

Diouf<\/a> starred as The Lions of Teranga overcame Salah\u2019s Egypt to move within one game of continental glory. <\/p>\n

Cynically from a West Ham United<\/a> point of view, it\u2019s a shame the defender will not return to the fold at club level just yet. <\/p>\n

What do West Ham have to do to BEAT Tottenham on Saturday? \u2692\ufe0f <\/p>\n

And what is your favourite West Ham v Spurs moment?<\/p>\n

\"West <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n

Though Diouf has perhaps tailed off from his fine form at the start of the season, Nuno Espirito Santo<\/a> needs all the help he can get on the defensive front right now. <\/p>\n

Still, a major international final awaits for the 21-year-old. Diouf played a key role in Senegal\u2019s win over Mali in the semi-final<\/a> and was heavily involved again on Wednesday night. <\/p>\n

Malick Diouf\u2019s stats for Senegal against Egypt <\/p>\n

According to FotMob<\/a> data, Diouf put in a very resolute defensive performance. <\/p>\n

In total, he made four defensive contributions in his 90 minutes on the pitch, during which he amassed 73 touches. <\/p>\n

Diouf made two tackles, an interception, a clearance, a headed\u00a0clearance\u00a0and three recoveries. He also\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0dribbled\u00a0past once.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though keeping a player of Salah\u2019s quality at bay is obviously a team effort, it was notable that the Liverpool star\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0have a single shot, nor did he complete a dribble.\u00a0In fact, he didn\u2019t even manage a touch in Senegal\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

How many more signings do we need to make for you to feel confident about staying up?! \ud83e\udd14 <\/p>\n

Still an awful lot of work to do\u2026<\/p>\n

\"NunoPhoto by Rob Newell \u2013 CameraSport via Getty Images <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n

When Malick Diouf could return to duty for West Ham <\/p>\n

Diouf wasn\u2019t part of Senegal\u2019s AFCON win back in 2022, so could be forgiven for having other things on his mind rather than returning to West Ham. <\/p>\n

However, Nuno needs all hands on deck right now. <\/p>\n

The AFCON final is scheduled to take place on Sunday, 18 January, 2026 at 7pm GMT. <\/p>\n

\"MalickPhoto by Samah Zidan\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen how quickly Diouf is back in action after\u00a0that.<\/p>\n

For context, Simon Adingra was a Brighton player at the time when he won the 2023 AFCON title with Ivory Coast. That final took place in mid-February 2024 and he was back in action at club level a week later. <\/p>\n

Diouf could feasibly be available for West Ham selection once again by the time they host Sunderland on Saturday, 24 January, 2026. <\/p>\n

While not always at his\u00a0very best\u00a0of late, Diouf has played well for West Ham this season<\/a> and has certainly taken that onto the international stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n

Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Ham United will be without El Hadji Malick Diouf for a while longer after the defender helped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1915,218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-371090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-el-hadji-malick-diouf","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}