Andy Carroll
Carroll faces a three-game ban after seeing his appeal rejected.

West Ham United striker Andy Carroll has reacted angrily to The Football Association rejecting his appeal against a red card following the clash with Swansea City defender Chico Flores.

Carroll was sent off by referee Howard Webb after seemingly accidently elbowing the Spanish defender in the second half of the Hammers' 2-0 win over Swansea at Upton Park.

The straight red card is punishable by a three match ban but despite an appeal The FA has rejected the plea meaning Carroll is unavailable for West Ham's games against Aston Villa, Norwich City and Southampton during the remainder of February.

An FA statement read: "As stated in the Rules and Regulations of The FA, an Independent Regulatory Commission must apply the test of whether the decision to dismiss a player was 'an obvious error'.

"The decision of an Independent Regulatory Commission in relation to a claim of wrongful dismissal is final and binding on all parties and is not subject to appeal."

The England international took to Twitter to respond to the news, labelling The FA's decision as "disgraceful", a reaction which could bring an additional punishment if the 24 year old is seen to have breached the governing bodies' guidelines or the code of conduct which administers England players.

Carroll helped set up both of Kevin Nolan's goal as West Ham claimed a crucial win in their battle against relegation from the Premier League but they will once again be without their record signing.

The former Newcastle United and Liverpool forward missed the first five months of the season with a foot problem but has produced three assists in as many starts since his return and is in contention to force his way into Roy Hodgson's England squad for the World Cup finals in Brazil this summer.

Swansea boss Michael Laudrup bemoaned the theatrics of Flores, who was floored by the unintentional elbow and West Ham boss Sam Allardyce was irate at the decision and was hopeful of winning an appeal.

"The biggest and cruellest blow that will be paid to me and the rest of West Ham team will be if there is an injustice here when we appeal this red card," said Allardyce. "There has to be someone in the cold light of day who can look at that and see that it certainly isn't a red card.

"The last thing we want as a team is to lose Andy Carroll for three games in a nothing incident as far as we're concerned but we can only hope that when the appeal goes in they see us the same as we do and I think most people do."