West Ham have failed with a challenge to the Football Association's decision to uphold Andy Carroll's three-match suspension, Press Association Sport understands.
An independent arbitral tribunal on Friday rejected West Ham's case, and Carroll's ban takes immediate effect.
West Ham are unhappy that the England striker's ban - a consequence of being sent off against Swansea last week after an altercation with defender Chico Flores - was not overturned by the FA, and took the case to tribunal in the pursuit of what manager Sam Allardyce claimed was "justice".
However, it is understood that the independent panel, at which the FA was also represented, turned down West Ham's submissions, and so Carroll will now serve his ban, starting at Aston Villa on Saturday.
Despite such an unsettled lead-up to the fixture, Allardyce expects a professional display at Villa Park as West Ham look to build on their draw at Chelsea and victory over Swansea to pull themselves out of the relegation zone.
"I hope the players are angry, as angry as I am, and I hope they take that anger out in a positive manner against Aston Villa to go and prove we can still win a game of football without Andy," he said.
"We are coming out of a very difficult period and are now proving that when everybody's fit and available, our results will turn.
"This is our best spell, a four-game run with seven points and we would like to continue from there.
"However, we must remember we have to maintain a level of performance which we have shown recently and try to better it, because that is the way forwards to try to get ourselves further up the league.
"We have all seen the benefit of a quick run of results with the way the table is laid out, so in the next few days, on Saturday and then Tuesday night (at home to Norwich), we could have ourselves in and around 11th or 10th position, if we do the job right and that will relieve an awful lot of pressure on ourselves."
Source: PA
