The comment was brief and yet it felt loaded. It came from David Moyes, after West Ham had rescued a draw against Brighton but lost too much ground all the same.
He had been asked about Declan Rice, who was pulling the strings between boxes in a club shirt for the first time since March 21.
‘We have missed him,’ Moyes admitted. ‘It was nothing to do with us, he got injured playing for England, not for West Ham. So we have had to put up with that. That has had an effect.