Head coach Slaven Bilic seemed incredulous when he was asked after the 2-0 win over Reading if he would play Ismaila Sarr at Bristol City on Saturday.

With a World Cup starting in less than a fortnight, the Senegal international does run the risk of picking up an injury that would rule him out of the global showpiece, and he has seen what happened to his teammate Imran Louza – an ankle injury sustained in the recent game at Millwall means he will not be part of the Morocco squad.

However, Bilic was pretty clear when quizzed on whether Sarr would play.

“Why not? I mean, why not?” he said.

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“Harry Kane will play, Luka Modric will play, the big players will play.

“You don’t want to think negatively. I know the players read, and I read, about the situation with players like James, Walker, Son, Varane, Pogba, Kante.

“My policy is always if you walk on eggs and try to save yourself, then it’s more likely you’ll get injured.

“We have a game, it’s a very important game for us. I would like to spare him of course, I would love to do it. But he’s a massive player for us.”

Bilic revealed he had spoken to Sarr about his levels after the 3-1 defeat at Blackpool.

“To be fair, after the Blackpool game I spoke to him, where he was a little bit not playing safe, but his numbers were down. I told him you can’t play like this and go to the World Cup.

“The best players play every game, and the best players play like crazy. You’ve got to be in form. His number since then went back to his normal numbers.

“So I just don’t want to be negative.”

The Watford head coach said that Sarr’s personality and beliefs mean he is a confident individual.

“He is a very honest guy, a very humble guy. He doesn’t have that in his head, he doesn’t think like that. He believes in God, he is religious, and when you are like that you are confident.

“If you give the best, then the best will come to you.”