Gianfranco Zola has challenged his West Ham players to "double their efforts" to make up for the absence of Scott Parker over the next two matches.
Parker, the heartbeat of Zola's team, is suspended for tomorrow's home match against Sunderland and the following game at Liverpool after reaching 10 bookings.
Zola said: "Scott is a big miss but the team did well last season when he was injured, so we can do the same now. I'm sure the players will double their effort to make up for his absence."
Mark Noble could move to his favoured position of centre midfield against Sunderland, while Valon Behrami is fit again after feeling a hamstring twinge in the warm-up before last Sunday's 2-2 draw at Everton.
Zola said: "The result at Everton came after a week where a lot had been said. Despite that though, we kept on working hard, particularly on organisation, and my staff did a brilliant job.The result was a result of that hard work."
With fellow relegation candidates Hull and Burnley playing each other, Zola knows that failure to beat Sunderland could mean West Ham dropping back into the bottom three.
"The focus needs to be on us doing our job," he said. "We said before the Everton match that we would keep fighting to the end and we have to keep that fighting spirit."
