West Ham United boss Alan Curbishley bemoaned their injury-list after defeat to Sunderland.

He said: "It may well sum up the season, what has happened to us today.

"We came here with 17 players - the injury list is chronic, and as the game wore on, it got worse.

"We were pulling people all over the place and filling in and to be fair, I thought we had done enough to get a point.

"There was nothing wrong with the ref putting five minutes up - there were plenty of stoppages, but the goal went in in the 96th minute, someone has just told me. It did seem a long time.

"The nature of the goal, in the last minute 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. I looked around the dressing room and there is ice everywhere and disappointed bodies, but we will just have to get on with it.

"It has been the story of the season."

The Hammers' injury list grew significantly during the game with George McCartney failing to reappear after the break because of a hamstring problem, Carlton Cole damaging a foot, McCartney's replacement John Pantsil suffering concussion and Ljungberg being carried off with a hamstring problem.