West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce is gutted losing on-loan Tottenham winger David Bentley to injury.

In his column for the London Evening Standard, Big Sam wrote: "We hadn't seen the best of David because he was in a catch-up situation, having missed so many games for Tottenham.

"By the looks of it, he has had the problem for a considerable amount of time but it had crept up on him.

"They thought it was a knee cartilage problem but when the surgeon got inside the knee it was found he had what is called a chondrial defect.

"The bone had to be drilled to encourage blood supply to the area and that means a six-month recovery period.

"We wish him well and it's a shame because we were good for him and ultimately he would have been very good for us. There is usually one long-term injury you have to cope with in a season, so I'm just hoping we don't pick up any more."