Arsenal have moved to fill a gap in their medical department by signing West Ham United's head of sport science and medicine, Andy Rolls.

The north London club are to lose one of their physiotherapists, Simon Harland, and they have responded by taking Rolls, who left West Ham this week and will begin to work with them in February. Colin Lewin remains as Arsenal's head of medicine.

Rolls had overseen a department at West Ham that has been besieged by injury problems, with the most damaging being that to Andy Carroll, the £15m record signing. The striker only made his first appearance of the season as a substitute in the 2-0 win at Cardiff City on Saturday, having suffered from a long-term foot problem.

Sam Allardyce, the West Ham manager, has cited the club's injuries as the chief reason for their Premier League toils – the Cardiff result lifted them out of the relegation places on goal difference.

West Ham have replaced Rolls with Dominic Rogan, a Lancastrian, who spent six years at Everton before going to Anzhi Makhachkala last year as the Russian club's head physiotherapist. "The manager is obviously one of the pioneers of sports science and sports medicine," Rogan said. "It's a privilege to work at West Ham."

The club said, in a statement, that they thanked Rolls "for his hard work and wish him all the very best for his future career".