Alan Curbishley hopes Freddie Sears will be fit when West Ham United return to Barclays Premier League action against Portsmouth on Tuesday week - the first of four home games in the final six of the season.
The 18-year-old striker missed Saturday's disappointing 2-1 reverse at Sunderland with a groin injury although very nearly made the trip to the north-east. "Freddie Sears should be OK for the next game," the manager said. "He nearly made it but we didn't think it was worth risking." Curbishley was also pleased to see that James Tomkins "got a bit more" experience at the Stadium of Light - and both youngsters could figure heavily before 11 May with some new names added to the casualty list.
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Against Sunderland, George McCartney and Freddie Ljungberg, who had put the visitors into an early lead before goals from Kenwyne Jones and Andy Reid edged it for the hosts, picked up hamstring injuries. Also, John Pantsil had concussion and Carlton Cole suffered a sore foot early on and "was limping around for most of the first half". Added to that, the manager confirmed the likes of Matthew Etherington and Julien Faubert are unlikely to figure again this season with the decision taken to get them in shape for pre-season.
Curbishley, who had travelled from east London with 17 fit players, said: "We are completely stretched to the limit now. As I have said all season, it has probably made us stronger but these boys have played every game week in, week out or they are returning from injury and having to get fit in the first team. It has been very difficult for us, they have done fantastically well as I have been saying all season but it looked like we were a little bit tired."
The manager had to make several changes throughout the game, with Lucas Neill and Jonathan Spector appearing in both full-back roles, while the latter had begun in the centre of defence. Further forward, Dean Ashton was forced into a lone striker's role having begun impressively alongside Cole. "We were pulling people all over the place and filling in, and to be fair I thought we had done enough to get the point." The manager said he had no complaints with the five minutes added time, although noted the goal "has gone in on 96 minutes".
On that Reid winner, he added: "In the last minute or with 30 seconds to go after giving it our lot we allowed Reid to get in between two people when it was clearable. We are very disappointed. Round the dressing room there is ice everywhere and disappointed bodies but we just have to get on with it. It has been the story of our season - lots of people have been out injured long term and the players that have been playing have had to play every week without a break.
"We started brightly and got our goal and from that minute really we stopped playing and perhaps took our foot off it or Sunderland came into it ... The second half they put a lot of pressure on us without creating too much. They had a good chance with ten minutes to go [through Daryl Murphy]. It is a cruel game, I am sure Sunderland have found that out this season. For them to win two on the spin is massive with five games to go and let's see if they can go and do it."
While Sunderland look to make sure of their top-flight status, Curbishley is still expecting his team to win the majority of their remaining games and push on from tenth position. "They are very tired, we have had people on international duty, Lucas Neill went to China, and quite a few of my players played midweek which we could have done without but we have got a bit of a break now.
"Let's see what we have got for the Portsmouth game but we are massively disappointed because we want to finish as strongly as we can. We have been in tenth position for a while - have got four out of six at home now and we have got to get some wins, get some points on the board."