Sam Allardyce has declared he is hoping to secure "one or two players" in the January transfer window to ease West Ham’s growing injury worries.

George McCartney injured a knee during training this week and is unlikely to feature at West Brom.

The defender joins a long list of players in the Hammers’ treatment room, with Mohamed Diame (hamstring), Yossi Benayoun, Andy Carroll and Jack Collison (all knee), Ricardo Vaz Te (shoulder) and Alou Diarra (thigh) all sidelined.

Unsurprisingly the West Ham boss feels it is essential to recruit new bodies in January.

"I think with our injury list at the moment, which is pretty severe and very concerning as far as I'm concerned, we obviously need to look in the market and see what we can do in January”, Allardyce told Sky Sports News.

“It is critical for us to try and get one or two players in during that period."

But Big Sam says he may have to rush Jack Collison back into action early, even though the Wales international still requires two weeks of training before being fully ready for a return.

“Jack is training but not available to play,” Allardyce told London24.

“He has been out of the game since the end of last season so it will be at least two weeks before we really should consider him, unless we become absolutely desperate on our injury front which is looking a little bit like that.

“I want to try and resist at all costs throwing Jack into the fray and risking another injury but I may be so desperate I might have to do that.”