West Ham United are to “escalate” some of their young players into the first team for their FA Cup tie with Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

The Hammers have a host of injury problems following a busy Christmas period and they have a Capital One Cup semi-final clash away to Manchester City next week.

Manager Sam Allardyce said: “A lot of the younger players are going to be escalated into the first team level to see if they are up for the challenge and can show they have the ability in terms of playing first team level at Nottingham Forest at the weekend.”