Andy Carroll’s state of health continues to monopolise pre season as  more reports flow in on the issue from New Zealand.

ClaretandHugh carried a story yesterday which claimed the Geordie had done just five minutes on the training pitch.

Very quickly a source close to the club, and with the squad in New Zealand, claimed there was no injury, that he trained fully on Sunday and was on an exercise bike  in the tunnel on Monday during the training session.

He added he will play in both games in New Zealand, that he was a bit behind the other squad members in terms of fitness and had his own programme.

The first game comes against Wellington Phoenix tomorrow morning and the second against Sydney FC on Saturday.

How much that will tell us about his state of fitness is debatable given these are, after all, friendlies.

But the big question that hasn’t been answered after originally being raised on Twitter by a usually reliable resource, is WHY the player is behind the others in training.

Unless there has been an injury problem – and there didn’t appear to be as he enjoyed the summer break amid the usual accompanying glare of publicity – it begs a few questions.

I have little doubt that the No 9 will be up to speed by the time the Spurs match comes around but given his history with injuries, the club should not be surprised that questions are being asked by the fans.

Andy Carroll’s fitness is a major and central issue at West Ham United  and hopefully at some stage we will be told why he has been on his own programme.