Allardyce laments ‘cruel blows’ to already injury-hit West Ham squad

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has lamented the club's growing injury list, after midfielder Joe Cole and Mo Diame limped out of their heavy Capital One Cup defeat to Manchester City.

Despite slumping to a 9-0 aggregate loss at Upton Park, Hammers fans were elated to welcome back record-signing Andy Carroll into the starting line-up for the first time this season, with the striker recently overcoming an ongoing foot problem.

But the Premier League strugglers were dealt another blow to their relegation fight as both Cole and Diame were forced off, with Allardyce confirming the Senegal international suffered a ‘very serious’ knee injury, while Cole could be sidelined ‘for weeks’ with a groin problem.

“Manchester City were outstanding,” said Allardyce. “But in the end the cruellest blow of all, after getting Andy through a comfortable 45 minutes, were the losses of Joe and Mo.

“Fortunately Joe's doesn’t appear to be too serious, but it’s a groin injury which will still see him out for a couple of weeks.

“Mo Diame, on the other hand, looks pretty serious. We won’t know for sure for another couple of days until the scans of his knee come in, but the pain he was in when he was stretchered off means it’s a very serious injury indeed.

“I’ve never had anything resembling this in my entire career.

“You will always have a period when a number of players are out with injury or suspension, but it’s never as long as we’re enduring at the moment.

“Any player that gets injured is one more than we can stand at the moment. We thought we were just about to come out of it, but after today the number of players we have out is too high again. We can’t stand to have any more."

With his side further weakened at this critical stage of the season, Allardyce confirmed he is hoping to strengthen his injury-crippled squad in what remains of the transfer window, as he aims to steer the club clear of the drop.

The east London outfit currently find themselves in the bottom-three, level on points with Sunderland and Cardiff in what is a ludicrously tight relegation battle.

However, the Hammers chief admits he may struggle to get some of his signings over the line, with the club already losing out on Monaco striker Lacina Traore to Everton.

“All we can do is strive to sign more players in the transfer market,” he added.

“We are pressing for other signings, but there’s a very limited availability for players on the market at this moment in time.”