Slaven Bilic "positive" despite key West Ham United injuries

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has insisted that he remains positive despite suffering several key injuries in the last few weeks.

The Hammers are without six key players - Dimitri Payet, Enner Valencia, Diafra Sakho, Manuel Lanzini, Victor Moses and Winston Reid - for this weekend's visit of Stoke City in the Premier League.

Bilic is confident that other players who did not get much of a look-in at the start of the season, such as Michail Antonio and Nikica Jelavic, can fill the void.

"I'm not trying to find excuses," Bilic told reporters. "I'm not happy, of course, but I am not trying to be positive - I am positive. It's time to show we can overcome these obstacles.

"I'm sure we will show we can play without these players. They are great players, that's why we got them, and that's why they were playing regularly.

"But we have to get through this period without them. I want to concentrate on the players who are available to continue the way we are playing."

West Ham are winless in five games going into tomorrow's match, but still sit in seventh.