Painstil's West Ham future in the balance

Ghana defender John Paintsil has been given the strongest warning yet that he could be offloaded by the English Premier League side next month.

The 26-year-old defender, arrived at Upton Park in 2006 after starring for Ghana in their run to knockout stages of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

But since the departure of coach Alan Pardew last season the Ghanaian has struggled to gain fist team place.

Pantsil played his first premiership game in almost a year for the Hammers he came on as a substitute in the 1-1 draw with Bolton last month.

He was given his first Premiership action in almost a year because the club were facing serious injury crisis.

Even though the injury crisis is mounting at the club Paintsil is still unable to hold a first team position.

West Ham boss Alan Curbishley says he will dip into the January transfer market if their poor luck on the injury front continues meaning, making the postion of Painstil untenable at the club.

"It is something we have got to discuss. With so many players not available it is very difficult to see where you start and we found last year how difficult it is to do things in the window," Curbishley said.

"But if it gets any more critical it is something we have to think about."

As new players are set to recruited, Painstil will be pushed further back in the pecking order.

West Ham will be forced to offload him to cut down on their huge wage budget.