Has The Academy Become The Infirmary? Reid Out Until February

Just when West Ham fans were hoping for a festive respite from injuries, comes the news that saturday's man of the match against Manchester United, Winston Reid, is going to be unavailable to play until the beginning of February next year due to a hamstring injury sustained in training. It does beggar the question, what on earth are they doing during training? Have they invoked some anglo saxon gladiatorial challenge ethos whilst out on the already treacherous training pitches at Chadwell? Years ago an associate of the Org was down among the portacabins that represented the height of luxury for the players, and as they made their way to the dodgy pitches he was most amused that Sergei Rebrov, who had not that long ago been a very expensive player, stumbled on the concrete interface between the cabin and the pitch. The manager at the time, now Crystal Palace's Alan Pardew, laughed and then went in to a minor diatribe about Bobby Zamora's head not being in the 'right place'. Highly paid players getting injured needlessly through poor facilities did not seem to bother him or the hammers hierarchy at all, and it seems that a bit more attention to detail is going to have to be employed if what was a very promising season is not to go off the rails. Reid joins: Dimitri Payet, Diafra Sakho, Manuel Lanzini and Victor Moses on West Ham United's burgoning long term injury list - Ed