Winston out; Chadwell Heath kicked into touch

Nurse, the screens. And now Winston Reid is out for six weeks, having suffered yet another WHU muscle strain in training. All we need is a few teacup injuries and a bout of Devonshire Flu to round off the week. At least Bilic has identified the problem. He's brought forward West Ham's move to a new training ground at Rush Green to get away from Chadwell Heath. He tells the Evening Standard about the Chadwell Heath pitches: "With Reid’s injury, for example, they are slippery on the top but rock hard underneath, and it is a bad combination. We can live without the great dressing room, the kitchens and the free area for now." Though it does make you wonder why, in a multi-million pound industry, we've been risking our prize performers on iffy training pitches. And think I've just felt a tweak myself. Could be doubtful for Stoke now…

Winston out…

Bad news is that Winston Reid has damaged his ankle in training and is out of both WHU's game at Norwich tomorrow and New Zealand's World Cup qualifying play-off against Mexico. It shows how much we rely on Reid that the club were going to pay £100,000 to hire a private jet so that he could fly straight from Carrow Road to New Zealand's training camp in the US. Our carbon footprint will have  improved, though not possibly our chances at Norwich. We have to hope that James Collins is fit again to partner Tomkins or move Joey O'Brien into the middle. Teams desperate to end a losing run normally prospered against the old Hammers — let's hope it's not so in the Big Sam era. Though whatever happens, I hope Norwich keep faith with Chris Hughton. He did a good job as player at West Ham and seems a decent man who was treated shabbily at Newcastle.