Di Canio absence adds to Roeder woes

The West Ham manager, Glenn Roeder, faces a game that could make or break his career at Middlesbrough on Saturday, as his employers give him a final chance to save his job. And he will have to do so without his captain, Paolo di Canio, who will endure an extended absence from the team with a knee problem he sustained in Monday's 1-0 home defeat to Southampton.

Reports suggested the Italian striker could be out for anything between six weeks and three months, but he will definitely miss the game at Middlesbrough and against Manchester United at Upton Park a week later. This was just another problem that Roeder could have done without as his side sit rooted at the bottom of the Premiership. "There are not enough hours in the day," Roeder said. "I don't think anyone on the staff had much sleep after the Southampton game – and I don't suppose our supporters did, either.

"A manager recently said 'does confidence breed results or do results breed confidence?' I agree with him that it doesn't matter how you get results, you need them to get confidence – and the most important thing now is to achieve results."

Roeder spent yesterday on a scouting mission in France watching the Senegalese winger Khalilou Fadiga play for Auxerre against Lille, while back at Upton Park decisions were being taken to set a strict timescale for the manager to lift the ailing outfit with a positive result this weekend.

With the chairman, Terry Brown, now feeling the full fury of the fans, Roeder either has to get some points before the game against United or they will be looking to install his replacement. The favourite is the Leicester City manager, Micky Adams, but West Ham are aware that he would cost them compensation. Adams does not have a fixed release price in his contract, but has only 18 months left to run and is paid around £200,000 a year.

The Turkish World Cup striker Hakan Sukur completed his move to Blackburn and Graeme Souness, the Rovers manager, believes the 31-year-old will bring a new dimension to the Ewood Park attack in the deal that lasts until the end of the season.

Sukur was released from his contract with the Italian side Parma, and so Rovers did not have to pay a fee for a player Souness believes can have a major impact on the Premiership.

"I am delighted Hakan is joining us," said Souness, who worked with Sukur when he was manager of Galatasaray. "I know what he is capable of, having worked with him before. He is a natural athlete and will provide us with something different. He is carrying a slight injury at the moment. But that has been taken into account and we are confident he will strengthen our squad.

"He's 6ft 2in but he's not a big lump of a striker who will fight and knock centre-halves over," added Souness. "He's someone who will run centre-halves into the ground with his movement; his touch and control is very good, and he does get his fair share of headed goals. So he's something a bit different to what we already have."

Despite no longer being the threat he once was, Sukur will bring a wealth of experience to Blackburn. Most of his best displays have come for Galatasaray, where his goals helped the Istanbul club to both domestic cup and league success. In 2000 he scored in both legs as Galatasaray beat Leeds en route to their Uefa Cup triumph over Arsenal in Copenhagen. He also found the net twice as Turkey beat the co-hosts Belgium at Euro 2000 to qualify for the second phase of a major international tournament for the first time.

A big-money move to Italy's Internazionale followed, but Sukur could not break into the first team and soon left for Parma. He was expected to be the star of Turkey's first World Cup appearance since 1954, but proved a disappointment for the eventual semi-finalists, scoring just once despite starting every match.