ALAN Curbishley has described Mark Noble as naive after discovering the young midfielder has been playing through injury for several months.

The 20-year-old faces two weeks out after a double hernia problem. He had a first bout of surgery in Munich on Tuesday and is expected to undergo a second operation today.

Curbishley said: "Unbeknown to us, and perhaps it is significant, he has been having this sort of problem for a couple of months and hasn't cracked on.

"It was only after the Coventry game when he came off that he said how sore he was and that it had been niggling for some time.

"I think we are dealing with a young boy who is probably thinking all he wants to do his play and he can get through it. But he has been going full pelt for the last five or six months and hasn't really had any recovery time."

He added: "It's probably a bit of naivety and we'll put it down to experience."

Curbishley has earmarked the crunch Premier League clash with Tottenham in two weeks time as a possible comeback for Noble (pictured) . The game is also likely to see the return of Dean Ashton, Freddie Ljungberg and James Collins who were all back in training this week.

The trio also have an outside chance of making the Hammers squad for the trip to Derby tomorrow.

But Hayden Mullins is struggling after limping out of the Bolton game with an ankle injury.

Curbishley though, is keen to treat the trip to Pride Park as a chance to get back into the Premiership top ten. He said: "We will set our stall out and if we can do that we give ourselves a chance. "Even though Derby are down the bottom we will give them respect." West Ham (from): Green, Wright, Neill, Gabbidon, Upson, McCartney, Ferdinand, Collins, Solano, Bowyer, Mullins, Etherington, Boa Morte, Cole, Pantsil, Spector, Camara, Reid, Ljungberg, Ashton.