Senegal midfielder Mohamed Diame could be sidelined for up to 12 weeks after the West Ham star suffered a torn hamstring in Sunday’s 3-2 defeat against Liverpool.
Diame was stretchered off in the 73rd minute after pulling up near the touchline and Hammers manager Sam Allardyce is concerned the former Wigan player will be out until well into the new year.
“Not good, it does not take a medical expert to know it is a serious hamstring tear when he falls and stopped the way he did,” Allardyce said when asked about the injury.
“I would expect, in medical terms, for it to be a grade 3 (injury) and that could be anything up to eight, 10 or 12 weeks.”
Diame’s absence will be a major blow to the Hammers after his impressive form this season, which included a crucial goal in the recent 3-1 win over Chelsea.
Diame joins Alou Diarra, Ricardo Vaz Te, Jack Collison, Yossi Benayoun and Andy Carroll on West Ham’s injury list and Allardyce added: “Diame is involved in most of the creative side of our game – he runs at defenders with pace and ability that puts them on the back foot.
“That is what we have lost and what we will be missing for a number of weeks.
“I have had a number of hamstring injuries myself in my time, when you go down like that you know you have really got (a bad) one.
“We will wait until it has settled down and then scan it, we will find out exactly how big the damage is and move on from there.”