Andy Carroll today returned to West Ham training for the first time since he broke down in September.

It’s the one piece of good news for manager Sam Allardyce following a defeat against Crystal Palace which has left Upton Park in shock.

Sports Direct News can exclusively reveal that the Geordie hitman has been “released” from his two-centred rehab clinic in Belgium and Holland after two months commmuting between the UK and Europe.

And as predicted by SDN two weeks ago the player has been accomanied to the UK by a clinic assessor who will oversee his training regime at the club.

He will carefully monitor the early days of Carroll’s training ground return to ensure the club know exactly what is acceptable at this stage of his recovery.

The club have been putting a little pressure on the clinic believing it’s important that the player is back among the  first team squad and that his confidence will be lifted by that and all the banter that goes with it.

We were told exclsuively by a well placed source: “We have our fingers crossed that after training on his own for a week Andy will be able to rejoin the squad for ball work.

“All our fingers are now crossed that given no setbacks the lad will be in the line to play his part in the first team before the end of the month.”