Slaven Bilic
West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic remains calm over his injury situation Getty

Slaven Bilic has promised West Ham will not make any panic buys during the January transfer window despite a deficit of attacking options at the club following Diafra Sakho's injury. Bilic will also be without long-term absentees Dimitri Payet and Enner Valencia for the trip to Manchester United on 5 December, but believes the squad at his disposal is strong enough to cope with their absences.

Having enjoyed an impressive start to the season including victories over Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea, the Hammers visit Old Trafford in desperate need of a return to winning ways having gone four matches without success. Bilic will once again turn to the likes of Andy Carroll and Nikica Jelavic in attack after Sakho was ruled out for two months with a muscle injury sustained against West Bromwich Albion.

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The news is another blow for Bilic, who had lost both Payet and Valencia in the previous game against Everton. Payet has been ruled out until February, curtailing his impressive start to the season that saw five goals and three assists in 12 games.

In in his weekly column for Evening Standard, Bilic wrote: "We are not going to panic buy next month after losing Diafra Sakho for what could be up to eight weeks.

"In terms of the quantity of injuries, we are not struggling to anywhere near the level of some other teams. But the ones we do have out are all attacking players, very influential to the way we play. We will continue to assess what we do over the coming weeks. But don't expect any sudden changes in our transfer spending as we are calm about the situation."

The Croatian manager, nevertheless, expects Valencia to return to action for the busy Christmas period after giving the Ecuador international permission to go to his homeland to continue his recovery.

"Enner Valencia has spent some time in Ecuador while he has been injured and there is no doubt that has helped his recovery from a mental point of view," he said. "Of course, it is co-ordinated with the medical staff and does not interrupt his rehabilitation. He should be fit by the end of the month and I am looking forward to Enner being available again."