Hammers' survival hopes hampered

West Ham’s survival hopes are in danger of being hampered by a combination of illness, injury and suspension to key players.

After hauling themselves level on points with fourth-from-bottom Bolton, the Hammers travel to Everton on Saturday without Lee Bowyer and Fredi Kanoute through suspension and Paolo Di Canio through injury, while Jermain Defoe and Glen Johnson are struggling with a virus.

Manager Glenn Roeder does not have the largest of Premiership squads, and he is facing fresh problems as he searches for the right team to field at high-flying Everton.

Roeder can do nothing about the fact that midfielder Bowyer begins a two-match suspension, while striker Kanoute completes his three-game ban. He must also do without skipper Di Canio who has returned to Italy for a check-up on his recent knee injury.

However, to make matters worse, several players have this week been struck by the bout of gastritis which affected Di Canio before his trip home.

Striker Defoe, defender Johnson, and midfielder John Moncur have all been weakened by gastritis. On top of that, midfielder Don Hutchison is ruled out with a knee problem, and both Steve Lomas and Nigel Winterburn are hoping to recover from injury.

In a bid to keep players match fit, senior squad members Gary Breen, Christian Dailly and Scott Minto all turned out for the reserves in last night’s 1-1 draw with Watford.

Once West Ham have got the trip to Everton out of the way they are at home to fellow strugglers Sunderland, and that game has added spice now that Mick McCarthy has been unveiled as manager of the Black Cats as he will be aiming to rally his players.

At least Kanoute will be available for that match, and he has a point to prove after having most of his season wrecked by injury and suspension.

Physio John Green, who joined Kanoute in America during his recent rehabilitation, explained: “Fredi is now firing on all cylinders and just waiting for his suspension to be completed, and he is ready and willing to come back into action for Sunderland.

“The injury that he sustained in that Chelsea game back in September was a nasty tear of the adductor, and, whereas a lot of people will refer to injuries around the groin as a strain or a tear this was a complete rupture – so the muscle was torn in half.

“You obviously have to wait for that to repair, and once it has repaired you have to wait for it to be strong enough, and that requires gradual progressive loading which culminated with his trip to America where we were able to do work that is very difficult to do in the normal everyday environment, both for me and for Fredi.

“Being away from the normal training ground distractions allowed us to work specifically on his problem twice a day, and he was having five or six hours of work on that injury for about eight to 10 days.”

Di Canio is due back at Upton Park on Sunday and but Green revealed that his return to Italy had uncovered fresh problems.

He told the club website: “As regards Paolo, the specialists that he goes to see in Bologna are unhappy with the strength of the knee on some of the isokinetic testing, and felt that he needs further time out there to recover.

“I think we said at the onset of the injury that these lateral meniscal things can suffer from prolonged swelling afterwards, and that the swelling then affects the power of the knee.

“Paolo’s problem still remains, but as far as we know nothing has changed on him coming back on Sunday.

“We agreed a programme with the professor in Bologna and they are sticking to that, so he will be available for training on Monday morning after the Everton game.”