West Ham defender George McCartney could make a shock return to action in Wednesday evening's Carling Cup second round visit of League Two Macclesfield Town.

The 27-year-old - an ever-present last season - has yet to feature this term after being sidelined with a hamstring injury and a bout of pneumonia.

However, Alan Curbishley has revealed that the Northern Ireland international, who returned to training on Monday, has an outside chance of being involved against the Silkmen.

The Irons boss though, was less upbeat about the prospects of any of his other crocks returning to first-team action in the near future.

“George McCartney may feature, but other than that we're a bit light on the ground with regard to one or two of the others coming back,” he said.

“But we had these sorts of problems last year.

“They haven't gone away yet so we've got to work as hard as we possibly can to get these players back.”

Kieron Dyer, Craig Bellamy, James Collins, James Tomkins, Danny Gabbidon, Jonathan Spector, Nigel Quashie and Jack Collison are all currently on the sidelines.

And they have been joined by striker Carlton Cole, who was withdrawn during Sunday's 3-0 Premier League defeat at Manchester City with a back injury.

Curbishley confirmed that the former England under-21 player would miss the Carling Cup tie, but could be back for Saturday's visit of Blackburn Rovers to Upton Park.

“It's a straight blow to his back. I don't think he's twisted anything so hopefully he'll be ok for the weekend, but we've got Wednesday to get through,” said Curbishley..

“Last year we attacked the cup competitions and we're going to do it again this year.

“With what we've got left, we will try and attack that.

“We've got a home game against Macclesfield and we've obviously got to go and get the result, then worry about Blackburn at the weekend.”

[Guardian-Series]

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