West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has confirmed that the club will not be signing Lassana Diarra.

The 29-year-old midfielder, who has been without a club since leaving Lokomotiv Moscow in August, has not played in almost nine months.

Diarra had been training with the Hammers with a view to signing a permanent deal, but Allardyce says that he will now not be moving to Upton Park.

"I have to say we have waited and we have negotiated for weeks to get the right deal and now we've got it, we find we can't get the right paperwork and the right clearance, so we have wasted his time and our time," he told ESPN.

"On the basis of the situation we're in right now, he would have been a very crucial player for us between now and the end of the season."

Diarra has won 28 caps for France.