Injury Latest

Paolo Di Canio's hamstring injury has been compounded by him becoming ill as well, says club doctor Ges Steinbergs.

While it was the muscle problem alone that forced him to miss the Leeds game earlier in the week, any recovery by Sunday for the FA Cup third round tie with Macclesfield looks a distant dream now he has been confined to his home for two days.

Explains Ges: "He has been struggling with a hamstring injury of late and last night he became unwell. He has got an infection and is quite congested, and what we don't want is for him to get a recurrence of the sinus problem he had last year, so we are treating him actively and early and hopefully we will get him fit as soon as possible.

"At the moment it is in its early stages and we will have to see how it goes with treatment but he will miss a couple of days' training, I'm afraid.

"We have had a lot of fixtures in a short space of time and I don't think his fitness will be affected, but having a little break as the Italians do might benefit the player's recovery."

Paolo had a successful sinus operation last summer after struggling through much of last season with the condition, and Ges adds: "He has been fine since the summer but had a rough time last winter with it, and he has trained fully since then.

"It has been the first infection he has had this season compared to five or six last year, so we are optimistic he will get through this quickly."

There are no fresh injury problems for Glenn Roeder to worry about, which comes as something of a relief for the Hammers chief - but neither are any players back for the weekend.

"We seem to have come through the last match without any major problems despite it being a cold, frosty night," says Ges.

"There are a few colds in the camp as expected at this time of year, but they are all relatively low grade and it is reasonably quiet."

Steve Lomas and Ian Pearce are still well over a month away from returning, and Ges says: "Steve has had the plaster taken away and is looking forward to having the reins taken off him a little bit. Ian has had an operation and is coming along fine.

"He is going through normal rehab, will step things up a little bit next week, and improve the aerobic side of things then.

"It has been a long haul but it has been a catalogue of different types of problems for him. He was unfortunate to have two big injuries in a short space of time but we are optimistic that he will move on from here."