West Ham United: Slaven Bilic confirms training ground move in a bid to combat injury crisis

West Ham are set to complete their move to a new permanent training ground earlier than expected in a bid to combat the injury woes that have besieged their first-team squad in recent weeks. With key attacking duo Dimitri Payet and Diafra Sakho already lost until the new year with ankle and thigh problems respectively, Manuel Lanzini is now set to miss six weeks after the Al Jazira loanee hurt his hamstring.

As if that was not quite bad enough for a team that started the season in impressive fashion but since suffered a run of five Premier League matches without victory, Victor Moses was substituted after just 37 minutes of the goalless draw at Manchester United on 5 December and influential centre-back Winston Reid picked up a fresh injury in training earlier this week.

"Winston's injury doesn't look good," manager Slaven Bilic, who also confirmed that Moses is set to be sidelined for a period of four to six weeks, said in a press conference held prior to the visit of Stoke this weekend. "We don't know how long he'll be out for yet, we'll know more tomorrow after the scan. He slipped early on in the training session, it looks like a rupture. He'll definitely be out of the Stoke [City] game and a few more.

"We are now missing six very important players, but we can't complain. We need to get over it and do well with the players we do have. We have a very good medical team here so hopefully some players will come back quicker than first expected.

"Of course it will be difficult without players like Lanzini, Payet and Sakho, but we played without all of them at Manchester United. Now it is about the squad and the character of the players we have, it is time for them to step up and help the team."

In addition to confirming the likely severity of Reid's injury, Bilic also revealed West Ham's plans to depart their Chadwell Heath training base and take up full-time residence at the renovated 29-acre complex at Rush Green in Romford.

"We were planning on moving the training ground to Rush Green at the end of the season, now we are moving that forward," he added. "We will be training at Rush Green from Monday. The pitches here at Chadwell Heath are soft on top, but hard underneath, which is the worst combination. So I have made the decision to go to Rush Green where the pitches are better.

"This is not the fault of the groundsmen or the medical staff, it is just a fact. The season is very long, every team has good luck and bad luck with injuries. I am optimistic that we will manage."